Ferts plunge on analyst ratings, comments
02 October 2008 18:39 [Source: ICIS news]
HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Share prices of some of North America’s biggest fertilizer companies plummeted in Thursday trading after analysts said the sector was underperforming.
Shares of Mosaic, CF Industries, Terra Industies, Agrium and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PotashCorp) all fell more than 20% on the New York Stock Exchange.
Bank of America analyst Kevin McCarthy said Mosaic, Agrium, PotashCorp and CF Industires were the four worst performers in the third quarter "as investors unwound commodity trades while crop prices pulled back from [Q2] highs".
Merrill Lynch cut its ratings on the sector to "underperform" from "buy," according to news service Reuters. Merrill Lynch said it cut the industry’s rating because of lower phosphate prices, ammonia and urea prices hitting a plateau and potash prices idling despite a supply shortage, according to Reuters.
Further clouding the future of the industry were falling corn prices - by late Thursday morning, corn for December delivery had fallen 84 cents to $4.57/bushel (€3.34/bushel) to on the week - and Mosaic reporting earnings on Wednesday that had missed analyst estimates.
At 11:15am CST (16:15 GMT), shares of PotashCorp had lost $25.70/share, or more than 20%, to trade at $102.34 (€72.66) - nearly a 60% decline from its all-time high of $241.62/share set in June.
Shares of Mosaic fell $21.18/share, or more than 31%, to trade at $46.33/share.
CF Industries lost $21.55/share, or more than 24%, to trade at $67.09/share.
Terra Industries, meanwhile, had fallen $6.25/share, or more than 22%, to trade at $22.15/share.
Shares of Agrium had fallen $11.54/share, or more than 21%, to trade at $43.36/share.
($1 = €0.71)
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By: David Rosen
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