Thursday, April 24, 2008

Agriculture Stocks - Pulling Back as Expected

It looks like we're getting the pullback I was expecting in the agriculture/fertilizer companies (see last week's post "This Sector is Full of Sh*t"). In the past couple of days, Potash (POT), Agrium (AGU), and Monsanto (MON) have pulled back about 10%, and Mosaic has pulled back about 15%. As suggested, I did modestly reduce exposure to these names and was lucky enough to do so pretty close to their recent highs.

Today, Potash reported outstanding results. The fundamentals of this industry remain terrific with companies enjoying strong pricing power and cash generation. Given the pullback in the sector, today I started adding back the position I just sold a few days ago with purchases of POT and MOS. Should the group continue to retrace (certainly possible), I'll likely continue to add to these names opportunistically.