I intitially started looking into DD as a potential money-worker with the Cinderella agriculture story. So I decided to look at the 10Q ahead of the 10K to be filed this Feb so I can see just how much of Pioneer (the DD subsidiary that rakes in profits on behalf of the ag play) helps drive up DD's bottomline.
Well, it does contribute, but not at levels to really see a P/E above 13. In October, DD's ag nutrition actually drove down profit bottomline -10%, while positive profits came in from all other business lines in safety protection, pharma, color coatins, performance materials, and e-communication tech. The ag unit only represents 16% of overall DD sales.
It's a great diversified company, but all the other business lines aren't huge growth sectors like ag. The ag business line will likely turn profitable in 2008 and it'd be nice to keep around for about a year with the assumpion that ALL the other businesslines must also report some earnings growth.
As we approach the 10-K release will signal it's ag businessline as a non-contributing team player right now, and it may likely not bode well for DD in the short-term unless executives can prove the ag unit will be the future of DD.
And I noticed some stock selling from more than one insider (but not significant stakes, about 1.25% of total stake holdings) before the 10-K annual report instead of after the annual report is released, which is kinda unusual ( http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=&CIK=DD&a... ).
$46.1 (02/17/08)
