Monsanto Disappoints; Hugh Grant Still Confident

Monsanto (MON) issued a slippery press release but the market still managed to be rightfully disappointed. The short term results were disappointing. Monsanto came out with long term promises of earnings growth in mid teens. A bird in hand is worth two in bush.

The press release was crafted in the third person making it easy for media to cut and paste. Guess which comments were easy to lift. A press release is a REG FD process. The press release utilized this line to help manage perceptions “As part of its earnings results for the quarter ending Feb. 28, 2010, the company discussed performance against projections in both the seeds and traits and agricultural productivity segments during a year of intense competitive pressure for both sides of the business.”

Excuse me the press release is supposed to provide information. The comment that they have discussed something relevant to shareholders is not disclosure. But not to worry; Hugh Grant, chairman, president and CEO for Monsanto offered up this quote for shareholder encouragement “...I am confident that we're a growth company going forward."

Something is wrong with the business plan and previous guidance is fallen apart. What to fix? Well maybe Hugh Grant should not be Chairman and President and CEO. That’s a lot of work Hugh. Besides Hugh you may need someone to blame. Right now you are a little bit naked.

Disclosure: No position in this stock

AutoNation Surprises Itself. Not Good

AutoNation (AN) surprised itself. First it announced guidance on Mar 31 for the quarter ending Mar 31. Six days later it raises EPS by about three cents a share. The good news is business should be better. The bad news is management cannot tell things are better as they run the business on a day to day basis.

They say that new and used vehicle sales are still in line with original expectations. So it must be on the expense side or a special provision.

The six day differential includes the three day Easter weekend. Need to hear the whole story. Stock has jumped as profits are 10% better than expected. Concerned about management who surprised themselves.

Apple iPad Game Changer Will Publishers Be Honest About Transition Costs? Probably Not Read Anyway

Apple (AAPL) tops the charts in media buzz. iPad sold some 300,000 units on Saturday. 250,000 eBooksadds to the wow factor. Apps developers are scrambling to get the new stuff out.

The big winners are supposed to be book publishers, magazine and newspaper publishers. The problem with the periodical publishers is that their stocks have already moved because we think advertising is coming back.

Will their stocks continue to move as circulation is saved and print costs decline. It’s all so confusing. The big guys such as Wall St Journal, Conde Nast, NY Times will all have compelling apps. The real litmus test will be what advertisers want to be on. The advertising experience should be superior on the iPad.

Can big media shift gears fast enough and capitalize on the potential of iPad and shed hard printing costs in lockstep. Probably not. Watch for cost control problems at News Corp (NEWS) New York Times (NYT) and others.

Watch for those executives to not talk much about this problem.

Fortress Investment Group -- Deal Junkies Pawn Dividends

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) skips the latest dividend so as to conserve working capital and do more deals. FIG has consistently missed the dividend since Q2 2008.

Two years in the desert on a horse with no name.

The deal junkies who manage FIG would prefer to have cash on hand so that they can generate more deals that create transaction fees for themselves personally rather than reward shareholders.

Tut tut tut.

Disclosure: I hold no positions in Fortress Investment Group