It seems that a lot of people still don't want "GM," whether you're talking about the American carmaker or genetically modified foods. I'll save my thoughts on the former for another piece. As for the latter, I think Monsanto (NYSE:MON) still has a good chance to rake in profits with its genetically modified seed products.
For the company's fiscal second quarter, sales climbed 15%, primarily thanks to a 25% increase in sales of its corn seed. Margins also expanded nicely, helping the company leverage that sales growth into 18% earnings growth.
It's easy to see the positive side of the story here. Many farmers like these modified seed products, which provide the prospect of better pest resistance, better drought tolerance, and ultimately better yields. Improving yield is the name of the game for farmers -- you only have so much land to work with, after all. That has created strong demand for products from Monsanto, Syngenta (NYSE:SYT), Bayer (NYSE:BAY), DuPont (NYSE:DD), and so on.
I'd expect that trend to continue. Land isn't getting any less scarce, and there's constant pressure worldwide to feed more people on less arable land. And heck, maybe there's even a long-term ethanol play here -- perhaps Monsanto and ADM (NYSE:ADM) could work on a modified corn variety that would produce more sugars and/or improve the ethanol yield.
But there are also some risks here that can't be ignored. Intellectual property remains an ongoing battle, as the company is seeing in Argentina. It will likely get worse in places like China and India before it gets better. There's also public perception to counter -- many people are still very nervous about genetically modified crops, and their fears carry some political weight in many areas.
I like this company, and by my model, it looks to be undervalued by a mid-teens percentage. If you hold it already, I wouldn't sell. But that mid-teens percentage spread isn't enough to entice me to buy today, so I'll be waiting in the hope that that spread widens a bit more, placing Monsanto firmly within my margin of safety.
Click on to harvest a bumper crop of Foolishness:
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
