Monsanto Sees Record Sales in Fiscal Year 2007; Seeds and Traits Business Contributes to Strong Fourth Quarter and Year-E...(Outlook Monsanto said that its full-y...)

Monsanto said that its full-year 2008 EPS guidance, both on a reported and ongoing basis, is in the range of $2.20 to $2.40. The company's 2008 EPS guidance reflects a projected growth rate of 10 percent to 20 percent from the fiscal year 2007 EPS ongoing base of $2.00 per share.

The company also confirmed guidance for free cash flow for fiscal year 2008 will be in the range of $800 million to $900 million. The company expects net cash provided by operating activities to be in the range of $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion, and net cash required by investing activities to be approximately $950 million for fiscal year 2008. (For a reconciliation of free cash flow, see note 2.)

Monsanto also noted that it expects that SG&A expense as a percent of sales for fiscal year 2008 will be in the range of 20 percent to 21 percent. The company also confirmed that its R&D expenses as a percent of sales for fiscal year 2008 are expected to be approximately 10 percent.

Trait Acreage Report

As part of today's announcement, Monsanto published its year-end report on the company's biotech trait acreage for fiscal year 2007. This report is available on Monsanto's web site at: http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/investor/company/crop.asp.

Seeds and Genomics Segment Detail

($ in millions) Net Sales Gross Profit

Fourth Fourth Fiscal Fiscal Fourth Fourth Fiscal Fiscal

Seeds and Quarter Quarter Year Year Quarter Quarter Year Year

Genomics 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006 2007 2006

Corn seed

and traits $364 $212 $2,807 $1,793 $178 $71 $1,721 $1,019

Soybean seed

and traits 33 27 901 960 7 12 588 667

Cotton seed

and traits 58 52 31
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