Stocks on the 52 Week High List – Ag Chemicals and Data
Storage
Three stocks in the Agricultural
Chemicals business reached new highs on Wednesday, Potash Corp. (POT), Mosaic
Co. (MOS), and CF Industries (CF). Mosaic and Potash produce and sell
fertilizers along with industrial and feed products, while CF solely
manufactures and distributes nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers. This industry
has been one of the strongest bull markets over the past year with Mosaic
appreciating 344%, Potash up 203% and CF rallying 223% over the past 52 weeks. The
three stocks have similar revenue growth with Potash at 42% in the current
quarter, Mosaic at 44%, and CF producing 64%. Mosaic stands out on the earnings
front with close to 500% earnings growth while Potash and CF have around 100%
earnings growth for the current quarter. When it comes to price, CF is the most
reasonable at an 18 Price/Earnings ratio and a $7 Billion market cap. Potash
has a P/E of 47 with a $51 Billion cap. And Mosaic has a 53 P/E and $50 Billion
market cap.
Western Digital (WDC) also hit a new on Wednesday. This is the
data storage company know as the little brother to Seagate in the PC Disk Drive
market. But this stock has taken off as of late appreciating 77% over the past
year. At a small 10 P/E ratio and 54% revenue growth in the current
quarter/138% earnings growth, this stock is still cheap. Eight analysts have
increased their earnings forecast to 0.97 from 0.88 in the last week for the
current quarter. Most recently beating their forecasted earnings by 30%,
Western Digital has beaten earnings the last four quarters straight.