Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM)

The cash stats don't add up. Under ratios, they are a cash making machine that pays back the price in a few years. However, in their cash-flow statements, they are burning cash at an increasing rate.

Down market after bear market rally - commodities will suffer most.

This portfolio tracks the performance of good vs. evil companies:

Evil elements:
-#2 on Toxics 100 - Worst Polluters
-Razing rainforests in Southeast Asia to make biofuel
-Exploitive labor practices
-Huge recipient of federal corn subsidies that were originally intended for farmers.

I don't think this stock will do well in an inflationary environment like our country will soon be facing. It is living off subsidies which are in danger of being cut. Debate is going on in Washington about biofuels. This company is responsible for deforestation. Ethanol is not environmentally feasible to fuel our nation and the politicians are starting to realize it. I see far more downside risks.

Surely this corn based ethanol rubbish will fade away. It's a net consumer of energy living on subsidies.

standard performer, great balance sheet

I am long on the concept of cheap alcohol, but I think ethanol may put this one under fire.

Female CEO: Patricia Woertz

"as CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, the former Chevron executive vice president is proving she can take on just about any challenge--even agriculture, an industry she never worked in before she became CEO in May 2006."

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0804/gallery.500_women_ceos.fortune/2.html

Lol!

Ethanol makes no economic sense. It takes more carbon based enrgy to create ethanol than it yeilds in BTU's. It also takes water from the earth, so it contributes to water shortages.

I grew up on a farm in Iowa and later obtained an engineering degree. Based on my education and staying current on world energy, I can see that ethanol energy production subsidises was purely political. Remember, the Iowa cacauses are the first political contest in each politcal contest year. What ambitious politician would vote against something that benefits Iowa.

I was able to sell my share of a Iowa farm shortly after the ethanol subsidiy became law. Thank you!

Unlike CPO, Archer failed to hedge on corn prices. with the flooding in the mid-west, higher corn prices should reduce margins. Furthermore, any strengthening of the dollar will reduce product demands from overseas. Domestic consumption will favor other market giants.

Corn based ethanol won't make it in the long run.

FOOD not ethanol; the world needs food and the ag cos with real food, especially beans, will "feed the world"; prefer to the fertilizer and "machine" cos which are volatile and vulverable to drought conditions
SUSTAINABLE

Too much competition.

Once the average american realizes that ethanol is not an alternative to gasoline, and that the government is only pushing for more of it because it would lessen our dependencies on foreign oil; companies like ADM will be scrambling to reset their startegies offset the rising wheat prices. No one is producing wheat because there is more money in corn for ethanol.

New studies show biofuels are worse for the environment than gasoline. May not have an immediate effect on general attitude, but doesn't bode well

Two articles linked below:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/08/biofuel-global-warming.html

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/02/studies-say-bio.html

Anyone who thinks ethanol might be the wave of the future needs to do some basic research into the viability of this "alternative fuel". The bottom line is that ...

1) There is no fuel efficiency benefit over traditional gasoline.

2) The environmental footprint for making ethanol is larger than that of gasoline.

3) Is it renewable? Sure. So is the sun.

4 If we used all of our current cropland for corn production it would meet only 12% of our fuel needs.

5) It isn't even viable as a bridge fuel to fill the gap between gasoline and other far more efficient and clean alternative fuels.

6) It's great for Iowa. I have nothing against Iowa mind you. Iowa just happens to be an early primary state that any politician running for President has to win. How do you do that? Push corn subsidies and ethanol. Brilliant. If politicians are saying ethanol is great it must be true.

Ethanol is one of the greatest stories ever sold.

good solid company, upside in alternative fuels namely ethanol ( building new plants)

41

The ethanol play has already been figured into the price for ADM stock. With the IPOs of other ethanol related companies last year, this value has been diluted. This is coupled with some uncertainty as to who will be the dominate players in this market.