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How to Invest for the Coming Ag Supercycle

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  • (0:45) - Everything You Need To Know About The Agriculture Industry
  • (5:10) - Where Should Investors Look To Invest?
  • (10:00) - Farming Equipment Manufacturers: Should You Be Waiting For A Pullback?
  • (16:30) - Companies Who Use The Farming Products: Consumer Products
  • (22:05) - Farmland Partners: Is An ETF A Good Way To Gain Exposure?
  • (29:00) - Episode Roundup: NTR, MOS, CF, DE, AGCO, TSCO, INGR, BG, ADM, ANDE, FPI, LAND
  •                 Podcast@Zacks.com

 

Corn, soybean and wheat prices have soared to multi-year highs in 2021 prompting hopes that a new day is about to dawn in the agriculture industry.

Description:

Welcome to Episode #256 of the Zacks Market Edge Podcast.

Every week, host and Zacks stock strategist, Tracey Ryniec, will be joined by guests to discuss the hottest investing topics in stocks, bonds and ETFs and how it impacts your life.

This week, Tracey is joined by Zacks Stock Strategist, Jeremy Mullin, who is the Editor of Zacks investing portfolio the Commodity Innovators, to discuss what is happening in the agriculture industry to start 2021.

Wall Street has ignored agriculture for years as prices of the key commodities of corn, soybeans and wheat remained low and the trade war with China negatively impacted US farmers.

Additionally, fertilizer prices had taken a dive as well, putting the fertilizer industry on the defensive.

The Start of an Ag Supercycle?

But by late 2020, market conditions had started to turn around.

American farmers had good spring and fall weather with good crop production. The Americans and Chinese entered into an agreement for the Chinese to buy agriculture commodities as well. Fertilizer prices began to recover from multi-year lows.

And now, to start 2021, the price of soybeans, corn and wheat, the three main crops, have soared due to a combination of factors including adverse weather in Brazil.

Prices have jumped to highs last seen in 2013-2014.

It has left some industry watchers asking: could this be the start of another supercycle, like the one that lasted from 2007 to 2015 and also included other commodities such as oil, copper and gold?

How to Invest in the Ag Commodities

If you want to invest in the three big agriculture commodities themselves; soybeans, corn and wheat, there are, of course, ETFs for that.

Investors can buy the Teucrium Soybean (SOYB - Free Report) , the Teucrium Corn (CORN - Free Report) or the wheat ETF.

The fertilizer companies are another option. They have seen rising earnings estimates in the last 6 months and sport attractive Zacks Ranks and are paying dividends.

Mosaic (MOS - Free Report) , one of the large producers of potash and phosphate fertilizers, is a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). It has a market cap of $10 billion and pays a dividend yielding 0.7%.

Earnings are expected to jump 200% in 2021 after growing 152% in 2020.

Equipment, Food, and Farmland

But there are ways to invest in agriculture that go beyond the commodity side including farming equipment, the food companies and even REITs that specialize in farmland. 

The biggest player in the equipment industry is Deere & Company (DE - Free Report) with a $92 billion market cap. Analysts are bullish as earnings are expected to jump 50% in fiscal 2021.

It’s a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) but investors have already been gobbling it up, as shares are up 68% over the last year to new 5-year highs.

Smaller competitor AGCO Corp. (AGCO - Free Report) , with a market cap of just $8 billion, is also a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

It’s shares have soared 55% over the last year, but it remains a bit cheaper on a forward P/E basis than Deere with a P/E of 18.3 compared to 22.5 for Deere.

Are the food companies or farmland REITs investing opportunities?

Find out the answer to all your questions about investing in agriculture on this week’s podcast.

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