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Filed under: BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Stocks to Buy, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)

In the wake of the BHP Billiton's (BHP) failed $39 billion offer and its new hostile $40 billion takeover bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT), agricultural fertilizer companies, including CF Industries Holdings (CF), are starting to look pretty juicy to investors.

Fertilizer companies have been struggling during the past few years as cash-strapped farmers have been pulling back on their purchases, but the tide appears to be changing.

By Dr. Declan Fallon

CXO Advisory Group monitors a lenghty list of Gurus and their related market calls. But the rankings are misleading for the reasons given below. The current list of leading gurus who have an accuracy call of 50% or higher is given below. Click to enlarge:

I was on Fox Business Network’s Happy Hour show last night. Co-host Cody Willard and I discussed the agricultural sector. Cody peppered me with questions about the sector, injecting his opinions that the sector may itself be overgrown.

My response was that I believe that seed companies like Monsanto (MON) are too richly valued and do not make compelling investments at this juncture. For the record, I have traded in and out of MON the past one or two years but have no positions at the current time.

The agriculture bull market is in full swing and the prospects for the industry keep growing stronger. Agriculture is entrenched in supporting the basic needs of humans and is vital to the sustainability of a growing population. In fact, 45% of the world's workers are employed in agriculture. Recently, prices for crops have skyrocketed as farmers produced less food last year than was consumed, and stockpiles have been drawn down to 30-year lows.

I think this might be the busiest day all month for our holdings'' earnings... <!--more-->before we get to that, first a quick note on the market.

Thanks to a reader who sent me one of the 2 analyst reports.

Fertilizer producers and distributors are in a very real bull market trend at this time as one of the only industries to thrive in the current environment.<!--more--> Two of the companies in this sector hit new 52 week highs early last week: Mosaic (MOS) and CF Industries (CF). I am hesitant to put a large portion of a portfolio into one sector, as Bulk Shippers looked great for a period last year and then collapsed, but the fertilizer companies look too attractive at this time to not be a little overweight on them.

On April 4, 2008 MOS will report.

This is what they will say....

"The previous quarter was a record breaking quarter for both revenue and profits. We see this continuing through 2008 and are raising our sales projections for 2009."