Monday, January 2, 2012

Seeking Alpha: Monsanto - Execution Needs To Merge With Opportunity

A good story will only take a company so far, and the last few years have brought that lesson home to Monsanto (NYSE: MON) the hard way. After years of aggressive pricing on their seed traits and tactics towards farmers that skirted (if not crossed) the line of bullying, Monsanto found to its dismay that rivals like DuPont (NYSE: DD) and Syngenta (NYSE: SYT) had closed the performance gap and customers were more than happy to give them a try. While Monsanto has what looks to be the most exciting pipeline in agribiotech and ample growth opportunities; management must be careful not to repeat the errors of the past if investors are to reap all the rewards they should.

Monsanto Fixing Itself Faster Than Some Expected
After years of riding high on the success off its genetically-engineered seed traits, Monsanto has had a rough couple of years recently. The company basically overpriced its seeds relative to their yield production (particularly SmartStax and Roundup Ready 2) and farmers began switching over to alternatives from DuPont and Syngenta. This transition was aided in no small part by a bad reputation that Monsanto had built with its customers after years of arrogance and aggressive tactics designed ostensibly at protecting its franchise. 

Please follow this link for the full article:
Monsanto: Execution Needs To Merge With Opportunity

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