Top Agriculture Stocks for Q4 2022

The agriculture industry harvests and provides agricultural commodities such as grains, livestock, sugar, soybeans, and more. Other companies in the industry produce fertilizers, packaged foods, and agricultural machinery. Examples of companies involved in agribusiness include Corteva Inc., Canada-based Nutrien Ltd., and Tractor Supply Co.

Agriculture stocks, represented by the VanEck Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO), have outperformed the broader market over the past year. MOO has provided a total return of -3.5% over the past 12 months, above the Russell 1000's total return of -13.1%. These market performance figures and all statistics in the tables below are as of Sept. 15, 2022.

Here are the top 3 agriculture stocks with the best value, the fastest growth, and the most momentum.

Best Value Agriculture Stocks

These are the agriculture stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. Because profits can be returned to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks, a low P/E ratio shows you’re paying less for each dollar of profit generated.

^{Source: YCharts}

• Intrepid Potash Inc.: Intrepid Potash is a diversified mineral company. It produces muriate of potash, known as potassium chloride, as well as a fertilizer that delivers potassium, magnesium, and sulfate in a single particle. On Aug. 4 Intrepid Potash reported earnings results for Q2 2022. Net income grew by 21.6% as sales increased by 35.1% year-over-year (YOY). High prices for potash and the company's Trio product helped to drive results.
• CVR Partners LP: CVR Partners is a limited partnership formed by CVR Energy Inc. It produces, markets, and distributes nitrogen fertilizers and related products. The company's most recent dividend of $10.05 per common unit was paid on Aug. 22, 2022.
• Adecoagro SA: Adecoagro is a Luxembourg-based company engaged in the farming of crops and other agricultural products. It also produces dairy products, sugar, ethanol, energy and other products and services.

Fastest Growing Agriculture Stocks

These are the top agriculture stocks as ranked by a growth model that scores companies based on a 50/50 weighting of their most recent quarterly YOY percentage revenue growth and their most recent quarterly YOY earnings-per-share (EPS) growth. Both sales and earnings are critical factors in the success of a company. Therefore ranking companies by only one growth metric makes a ranking susceptible to the accounting anomalies of that quarter (such as changes in tax law or restructuring costs) that may make one or the other figure unrepresentative of the business in general. Companies with quarterly EPS or revenue growth of over 2,500% were excluded as outliers.

^{Source: YCharts and Nutrien Ltd.}

• CVR Partners LP: See company description above.
• Benson Hill Inc.: Benson Hill is an agro-food company that offers the CropOS platform, which uses predictive breeding and gene editing technology to create food and ingredient feeds. Benson Hill reported Q2 2022 results on Aug. 8. The company reported a net loss compared to the prior-year quarter, which is why as revenue nearly tripled YOY. Revenue growth was primarily led by gains in the company's Ingredients segment. Note that Benson Hill does not have an EPS growth figure in the table above because EPS was negative in the latest quarter.
• CF Industries Holdings Inc.: CF Industries Holdings is a major manufacturer of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer products worldwide. It sells nitrogen-related products including ammonia, urea, urea ammonium nitrate solution, and ammonium nitrate. CF Industries announced earnings results on Aug. 1 for Q2 2022. Net earnings attributable to common stockholders grew nearly five-fold YOY as revenue more than doubled. The company said sales were strong across all segments, offset by weather-related challenges in North America.

Agriculture Stocks with the Most Momentum

These are the agriculture stocks that had the highest total return over the last 12 months.

^{Source: YCharts}

• CVR Partners LP: See above for company description.
• CF Industries Holdings Inc.: See above for company description.
• Cal-Maine Foods Inc.: Cal-Maine Foods produces and distributes shell eggs across the U.S. It also grades, packages, and markets egg products. Its operations also include hatching and growing chicks, breeding, and manufacturing feed.