The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) announced today net earnings of $862.5 million, or $1.93 per share, for the fourth quarter ended May 31, 2008. These results compare with net earnings of $202.6 million, or $0.46 per share, for the quarter ended May 31, 2007. Net earnings for Mosaic's fiscal year ended, May 31, 2008, were $2.1 billion, or $4.67 per share, compared with $419.7 million, or $0.95 per share, in fiscal 2007.Net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 were $3.5 billion, an increase of $1.8 billion, or nearly double the amount posted in the same period a year ago.
Mosaic's gross margin for the fiscal 2008 fourth quarter was $1.3 billion, or 37.1% of net sales, compared with $456.2 million, or 27.1% of net sales, a year ago. Fourth quarter operating earnings were $1.2 billion, compared with $359.8 million for the fourth quarter in fiscal 2007. Financial performance continued to benefit from strong agricultural fundamentals and customer demand that drove significant increases in selling prices. Mosaic also had effective operational performance and the Offshore segment results benefited from positioning of lower cost inventories. These positive factors were partially offset by significantly increased Canadian resource taxes and royalties in the Potash segment, and by higher raw material costs for sulfur and ammonia in the Phosphates segment....MORE
The stock was up $0.33 in after-hours trading.
From MarketWatch:
...Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had predicted the Plymouth, Minn.-based fertilizer and feed company would earn $1.65 a share on $2.81 billion revenue. Mosaic shares rose 0.5% ahead of the report to close at $122.66
