Corteva shares plunge as CEO warns Brazil slump will drag on

By Vallari Srivastava and Khusbu Jena

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Corteva CTVA.N shares sank to a more than one-year low on Thursday and were on track for their steepest single-day percentage drop ever, as the US agrichemicals firm warned of continued weakness in the Brazilian market for the rest of the year.

Farmers in Brazil, one of the world's largest crop protection markets, have been hit by liquidity constraints as soaring interest rates lift financing costs and input prices rise.

"We did not anticipate the magnitude nor the speed of the deterioration we have experienced in Brazil," Corteva CEO Luke Kissam said in a post-earnings call. The company had sharply cut its annual outlook on Wednesday.

"Brazil was already a difficult market... market conditions deteriorated sharply in the final weeks of the third-quarter, and we've continued to see negative development since then," Kissam said.

"Too much of the product we sold into the Brazil channel last year didn't go to ground," he said, adding that Corteva had more of its own inventory in the channel than expected in 2026.

The company does not anticipate any meaningful improvement in purchasing behavior in Brazil in the near-term, with the elevated inventory expected to impact 2026 core profit by $100 million.

Shares of Corteva, which makes crop protection solutions such as herbicides and fungicides, were down 20.3% at $9.68.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CORTEVA-RESULTS/akveldlorpr/chart.png

OUTLOOK WEIGHS ON STOCK

Earlier this year, the company completed the separation of its seed and genetics business into a separate publicly traded company Vylor VYLR.N.

Corteva "stumbled out of the gate" in its first standalone earnings report after the separation, said Oppenheimer's Kristen Owen.

KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Salvator Tiano said given most of the problems were concentrated in Brazil, the third-quarter results were "not bad on a standalone basis."

"The issue is the big deviation vs the outlook provided in mid-September."

Corteva on Wednesday slashed its full-year adjusted core profit outlook to $1.1 billion to $1.125 billion, from roughly $1.3 billion previously. Its adjusted per share profit forecast of 76 cents to 80 cents fell below analyst estimates of $1.63 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.