Take the long view

Article Excerpt

ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO. $36 (New York symbol ADM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 652.7 million; Market cap: $23.5 billion; WSSF Rating: Above average) earned $0.56 a share in its third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2007, up 5.7% from $0.53 a year earlier. If you disregard a one-time gain, earnings fell 3.8%, to $0.51 a share. Sales grew 25.3%, to $11.4 billion from $9.1 billion. The company blamed the weaker earnings on rising prices for corn, a key component in its food processing operations. However, the high prices have also prompted farmers to plant a record amount of corn this year, and the extra supply should help bring down Archer Daniels’s input costs. Lower corn prices will also help expand profits at Archer Daniels’s ethanol operations. Although new capacity has hurt ethanol prices in the past few months, government regulations mandating its use as a gasoline additive should keep prices stable. Archer Daniels is also looking at…