AGRIUM INC. $95 (Toronto symbol AGU; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 149.0 million; Market cap: $14.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.agrium.com) gets 60% of its sales from stores that sell fertilizers to farmers. It also makes fertilizers from natural gas, and other fertilizers such as potash and phosphate.
In the three months ended September 30, 2012, earnings fell 26.6%, to $215 million, or $1.34 a share, from $293 million, or $1.85 a share a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Sales fell 5.7%, to $3.0 billion from $3.1 billion. Weak demand for potash offset strong sales of other fertilizers.
Partly due to pressure from activist investor Jana Partners, which owns about 4% of Agrium’s shares, the company recently doubled its dividend to $2.00 a share from $1.00. The stock now yields 2.1%. It also spent $900 million (Cdn.) on share buybacks.
The stock trades at a low 9.5 times Agrium’s likely 2012 earnings of $10.02 a share.
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