[posting]30944789[/posting]SORRY, nicht 64 Cents, sondern 65 Cents pro Share ohne Einmalerträge, also sechs Cent über Anlaystenerwartungen (so mit diesen sechs Cent drüber habe ich es auch auf Bloomberg vernommen, stutzte schon eben beim Schreiben ...
).Siehe www.nasdaq.com, Symbol: ADM, "Company News":
2nd UPDATE: ADM Net Up On Asset Sales; Corn Results Weaken
(Updates throughout with information on fourth-quarter performance, comments from executives and an analyst, and recent share price.)
By Stephen Wisnefski
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CHICAGO -(Dow Jones)- Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), the U.S.'s largest ethanol producer, said Monday its fiscal fourth-quarter net income more than doubled, boosted by a gain of more than $600 million from asset sales and a 28% increase in net sales.
The Decatur, Ill., agricultural-processing company, however, showed a decline in operating profit in its corn business amid high corn costs and lower sales volume of corn-based ethanol. The company - which also recorded lower operating profit in its oilseeds business, excluding a gain related to an asset sale - said it expects its corn costs to fall amid a strong global crop and ethanol prices to decline in the current quarter.
ADM reported earnings of $954.8 million, or $1.47 a share, for the three months ending June 30, up from $410.3 million, or 62 cents a share, a year earlier. Net sales rose to $12.21 billion from $9.55 billion.
Results for the latest quarter included an after-tax gain from asset sales of $616 million, including $440 million in oilseeds processing and $158 million in agricultural services. Excluding those items, earnings were $418 million, or 65 cents a share.
The bottom line, excluding items, surpassed the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, which pegged earnings at 59 cents a share, but investors weren't impressed. Shares of ADM were down 0.8% at $33.77 in recent trading, while shares of other U.S.-based ethanol producers were in positive territory.
"At first glance, ADM's quarterly results look impressive," Ann Gilpin, analyst at Morningstar Inc., said in a research note. "However, after accounting for one-time events like asset sales and other gains, the underlying results look weak."
Gilpin pointed to ADM's 13% decline in gross profit, which stood at $718 million in the fiscal fourth quarter. She said the company has been hit by declining margins in the oilseeds business and weaker ethanol sales in an increasingly competitive market.
Lower Ethanol Sales Volume
ADM has been a primary beneficiary over the past few years of increased interest in ethanol, as demand increases and the U.S. government promotes its use as an alternative to traditional fuels.
In late June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that farmers will sow nearly 93 million acres of corn this year, a 19% jump from last year. The huge crop could send corn prices lower over the next few months, providing some financial relief to ethanol producers.
Still, relying solely on corn puts ADM at the mercy of weather and political factors that could drive up grain prices. Furthermore, the U.S. ethanol market has grown increasingly competitive as the price of corn cuts into ethanol producers' profits.
In the fiscal fourth quarter, ADM's corn-processing operating profit fell 16% to $241 million. ADM executives said during a conference call that the latest quarter was up against a tough comparison from a year earlier, when ethanol inventories were built up in many markets as the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, was phased out and the amount of ethanol in the fuel mix increased.
ADM is preparing to enter the sugar-cane-ethanol business in Brazil. The company is exploring a variety of strategies, ranging from building sugar-cane mills and ethanol plants from the ground up to acquiring sugar-cane companies.
On Monday, ADM's Chief Executive Officer, Patricia Woertz, said that Brazilian ethanol operations provide "an opportunity for profitable growth for (ADM) regardless of what happens for (the company) in the U.S. market."
Capital Spending Increasing
ADM's oilseeds processing operating profit in the latest quarter more than tripled to $587.2 million, helped by a gain on the exchange of the company's interests in certain Chinese joint ventures for shares in Wilmar International Ltd. (F34.SG), the largest agricultural processing business in Asia.
Excluding the gain, oilseeds operating profit declined to $147 million from $ 195 million. ADM cited declines in European rapeseed and biodiesel margins.
Chief Financial Officer Douglas Schmalz said during the conference call that the rapeseed crop in Europe is smaller than expected and biodiesel imports are entering Europe, factors that will pressure rapeseed crush and biodiesel margins.
Agricultural services operating profit nearly tripled to $240.8 million, which ADM attributed to a gain on the sale of the company's Agricore United investment. Excluding that gain, results increased $5 million to $88 million in the segment.
Schmalz said that the anticipated large corn crop should translate into grain handling opportunities in agricultural services.
At other segments, which include the food, feed and industrial business as well as financial operations, operating profit rose 13% to $83.2 million, boosted by improved results in the financial division.
ADM plans to increase capital spending in fiscal 2008 to between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion, versus $1.2 billion in the previous year. Woertz, the CEO, said 2008 will mark the peak in spending in its current capital projects program.
"Our realignment and sale of assets are on target," Woertz said. "Our strategic capital projects are all on schedule, and we see adequate global crops to meet all our needs."
-By Stephen Wisnefski, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4142; stephen.wisnefski@ dowjones.com
(Mike Barris and Judy Lam contributed to this report.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-30-071307ET
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Na, dann kann es sich morgen ja wieder beruhigen ...
Auf die Analystin gebe ich nichts, passiert immer das Gegenteil.
Siehe GPC Biotech: Kurz vor dem Absturz hat Goldman Sachs die Aktie noch zum Kauf empfohlen ...
Bis in drei Monaten ...
abs