Piper Jaffray Overweight On Monsanto Co. (MON)

Piper Jaffray has an Overweight rating and a $95 price target on shares of Monsanto Co. MON. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "We maintain our Overweight rating and $95 price target on shares on MON following a round of dealer checks that gives us increased confidence in management's guidance for reduced refuge and Roundup Ready 2 Yield (RR2Y) seeds. From these conversations, we believe both reduced refuge and RR2Y beans will meet expectations of mid-teens millions of acres for the 2011 season – with potential EPS upside in the quarter of $0.05 coming from increased acreage + share gains. In addition to volumes, other important levers for upside remain in place, including elevated farm incomes & sentiment, and beet & alfalfa deregulation." Shares of MON gained 29 cents yesterday to close at $70.79, a gain of 0.4%.