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Monsanto Co. said Thursday that it will buy back up to $2 billion shares of the company’s stock over a three-year period.
The agriculture giant said the new share repurchase program is effective July 1 and will commence at the completion of its existing $1 billion share repurchase program, which was effective beginning in July last year.
The company said its strong performance has allowed the company to return more value to its shareholders. Last month Monsanto increased its full-year profit prediction, citing continued strong global demand from corn growers. However, this is anything but true.
The real reason any company would buy back shares is to lessen the impact on the stock market losses when their shares are falling in price. This is yet another example of Monsanto’s unethical “fiduciary responsibility” to their shareholders.
Shares of the St. Louis-based company slipped down 19 cents to close at $98.72 Thursday and slipped another 31 cents in after-hours trading. The continuing falling prices are seen as a wake up call for investors to dump their stocks on a failing technology and company.
Monsanto puts the lives of farmers and consumers in dangers from their creations of genetically modified crops such as corn, soy and alfalfa and Roundup herbicide, whose damaging results arise when these foods and the amounts of herbicide that are found in the foods are consumed, as many studies have confirmed.
If Monsanto were to sink any lower, they’d reach pond scum status; that’s about as low as any company can go when you’re dealing with people who will do anything to keep from losing money. And they have a laundry list of fraudulent and criminal behavior over the course of their company’s history.
And if the falling stock prices weren’t enough to send shivers of excitement down the spine of those who oppose Monsanto and their shady dealings, Monsanto is now claiming that sabotage may be behind GMO wheat in Oregon as more farmers file suit. Could someone be out to get biotech seed producer Monsanto Co.?
New York Daily News reported that in a Wednesday conference call with reporters, Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robb Farley raised the possibility that the stand of genetically engineered wheat discovered in a Oregon field that has threatened U.S. exports of the crop may have been the result of the “purposeful mixing of seed.“
While Farley said that the company’s Roundup Ready seeds may have been planted inadvertently, sabotage remained a distinct possibility in the mind of the CTO.
“We’re considering all options and that’s certainly one of the options,” Fraley said.
Japan and South Korea — two countries that ban genetically modified organisms, or GMO, crops — both suspended U.S. wheat imports following last week’s discovery of the Monsanto strain, causing wheat futures to tumble.
In response, three U.S. farmers — one in Kansas and two in Washington — have now filed lawsuits against the company.
“We believe Monsanto knew of the risks its genetically altered wheat posed, and failed to protect farmers and their crops from those risks,” Stephen Susman, a lawyer for Kansas farmer Ernest Barnes, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in the nation’s capitol Thursday, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley stepped up his efforts to overturn the so-called “Monsanto Protection Act,” a rider tacked onto a Congressional spending bill that circumvents judicial authority concerning the planting and development of genetically modified seeds deemed to be unhealthy for human consumption.
On the Senate floor, Merkeley, a Democrat, received an on- record assurance from Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, that she would oppose an extension of the rider beyond its September expiration.
“I will do my best to oppose any effort to add this kind of extension in the conference committee on this farm bill or to otherwise extend it without appropriate legislative examination,” Stabenow said.
As for the source of the genetically engineered wheat found in Oregon, the USDA is currently conducting an investigation. No U.S. government approval was ever given to the Roundup Ready wheat, and for good reason.
When it comes to the stock market, however, one should never look at the short-term picture. The more people demand that their mutual fund (retirement) advisors ‘disinvest’ in Monsanto company, the better off their 401K’s and the planet will be.
