Monsanto Co. reported a fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter net loss of $112 million and said that it must restate earnings for the last two years because of a federal investigation into its herbicide sales.
Monsanto was prompted to restate earnings from the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009 through the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission findings that the company paid dealers of its Roundup Herbicide. Monsanto did not provide revenue or income comparisons to last year’s fourth quarter because of the pending earnings revisions. Last year, the company reported a quarterly loss of $233 million, with $1.95 billion in revenue.
The company said the restatements could reduce its reported net income in the fiscal year 2009 by 5 cents per share to 10 cents per share. The impact on earnings for fiscal year 2010 could range from a loss of 2 cents per share to a gain of 3 cents per share.
For the fourth quarter of 2011, Monsanto said sales in its seeds and genomics division jumped 39% compared with 2010, to $1.4 billion. Corn seed sales rose 58% from 2010 to $671 million during the quarter. For the full fiscal year 2011, Monsanto reported net income of $1.61 billion, or $2.96 a share, on $11.82 billion in revenue.
