24/7 Wall St. » Agriculture

Fired For Lying About Degrees (IPI)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:43:24 +0000

Intrepid Potash, Inc. (NYSE:IPI) has announced that President and Chief Operating Officer, Patrick L. Avery, is leaving the company. This isn’t over management performance or over company developments. He apparently was “mistaken” about a couple of degrees on his resume.

Avery submitted his resignation and confirmed that he did not receive a B.A. degree from the University of Colorado or a M.S. degree from Loyola Marymount University. He noted that he had several years of course work at the colleges, but did not earn the degrees he represented.

Intrepid Potash said that it learned of these facts yesterday. The company said it anticipates entering into an agreement with Avery to serve as an operations consultant for an undetermined period of time. If Avery is this important, why can’t the company just overlook his lies? Not in today’s world where anyone can vote you off the island. But keeping him creates a PR nightmare.

The President’s role will be assumed by Robert P. Jornayvaz III, Chairman and CEO. The Chief Operating Officer job will be assumed by Hugh E. Harvey, Jr., Chief Technology Officer. The company said that it will search for a new Chief Operating Officer.

This sounds like it is probably just two-degrees of separation rather than six. But what a big two degrees.

Jon C. Ogg
February 11, 2009

Posted in Commodities & Metals Tagged: Agriculture, cheating, Firing a CEO, Intrepid Potash, IPI, Lying about degrees, lying on resume, Misrepresenting degrees, Potash

Jim Cramer’s Play On $16 Corn & Wheat (POT, MOO)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:31:24 +0000

Jim Cramer came out on CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight, predicting huge gains in agriculture prices and in gold. Unlike Basketball’s March Madness and a "Sweet 16" his "sweet 16" targets all revolve around "$16" for the commodity. Cramer said he is making some key changes to some of his stocks picks in each of these sectors.

His first theme is agriculture. He thinks agriculture is being thrown through the roof because of ethanol. Cramer thinks that corn goes $16 and wheat goes to $16. He has been very positive on this one over and over and here were his last picks. He wants to switch gears and you should go into Potash of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) because of severe pricing power. He loves the high barriers to entry and lack of competition. We also had a recent IPO get filed in this sector. He noted that consensus estimates are 107% in 2008, and with a fair earnings multiple that stock could see significantly higher prices. If you are still unsure about picking individual stocks in this sector, we would note that you can look at the ETF for the agriculture play that is the Market Vectors Global Agribusiness ETF (AMEX: MOO).

Cramer is also talking up some new picks he has for gold and also in higher gas prices.

Jon C. Ogg
March 3, 2008

Cramer Stays High on Agriculture (MON, POT, AGU, DE, MOS, MOO)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:18:37 +0000

On CNBC’s MAD MONEY tonight, Jim Cramer went over the agriculture sector. We recently noted ourselves about Ag-flation as wheat prices have more than doubled over the last year. Cramer noted that Cargill suspended plans for a new ethanol plant. Cramer says that this is going to create a sell-off, but it won’t mean the sector is dead and will create buying opportunities. He thinks the famine watch may end up with rationing to keep a lid on prices in a world where demand is rising rapidly. The possible famine and growing demand for food and crops for energy is driving these. After these stocks take a share price hit this week, he wants you to look at buying some of these that are still at the start of a multi-year trend as now our food supply is competing for energy. His favorite stocks right now in the sector are:

Mosaic (NYSE: MOS) as a potash winner with major pricing power.
Potash (NYSE: POT) as another potash winner with major pricing power.
Agrium (NYSE: AGU) also in nutrients and fertilizers like Potash.
Monsanto (NYSE: MON) as the biotech of Agriculture.
Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) for the machinery.

We would also note that if you are a true lover of agricultural trading, there is an ETF that tracks this sector called Market Vectors Global Agribusiness ETF (AMEX: MOO), which is up 50% since its launch just 6-months ago. You would also want to know that Four of his five top picks in that group above are in the top ten holdings in this ETF. There are many other Agriculture pieces here, and some are Cramer and some are not:

Cramer very recently noted FMC Corp. as his hidden value agriculture trade.
He also talked about Ag-flation before, although that isn’t as fresh.
Here were the 2007 relevant comments into 2008 where Cramer said he sees Ag and Solar winning.
You can also see his "wild bull market picks" in the sector from last year to see which he likes and walked away from.
You can also see a pending hot IPO in the sector called INTREPID POTASH.
We also featured Titan Machinery before it was added to the IBD 100 index.

Jon C. Ogg
February 26, 2008