Fertilizer Stock Winners and Losers: Mosaic

Mosaic(MOS Quote), despite reporting a disappointing quarter, was moving higher along with shares of other fertilizer companies on Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Mosaic reported that its fiscal third-quarter profit fell nearly 89% as sales slid 36%. Shares were recently trading at $44.17, up 2.9%, on volume of more than 10 million shares.

Mosaic made $58.8 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a profit of $520.8 million, or $1.17 a share, for the same period a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting EPS of 24 cents.

Revenue fell to $1.38 billion, compared with $2.15 billion a year earlier. Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.89 billion.

"Despite the turmoil in commodity markets, we remain confident that long-term agricultural fundamentals are excellent," said Jim Prokopanko, Mosaic's president and chief executive officer. "This is a self-correcting cycle because demand for crop nutrients can only be deferred for so long. Large crops are still required to secure the world's food supply and crop nutrients will play an essential role in achieving that objective."

Elsewhere, Agrium(AGU Quote) was up 1.2% to $37.40.

Intrepid Potash(IPI Quote) rose 3.8% to $20.10.

Monsanto(MON Quote) was higher by 2.6%, to $79.85.

Potash(POT Quote) was up 3.5% to $82.43.

Scotts Miracle Gro(SMG Quote) shares were up 1.7% to $34.80.

Terra Industries(TRA Quote) was higher by 2.8% to $27.31.