AgFeed Industries' shares rise, option volume up
CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) - Shares of AgFeed Industries Inc (FEED.O) rose 9 percent on Tuesday as investors continue to be cheered by the company's prospects in China's hog industry.
The shares are up nearly 72 percent since mid-May when the company reported better-than-expected earnings and that it was entering a joint venture to upgrade pork production systems throughout Asia.
AgFeed is a China-based feed and hog production company whose shares trade on Nasdaq. The shares closed up nearly 9 percent on Tuesday at $7.509.
AgFeed has not made any announcements since the intended joint venture to cause its shares to rise, Gerry Daignault, the company's chief operating officer, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Options trading in the stock on Tuesday was about four times normal.
The company reported quarterly earnings of $3 million on May 11, or 8 cents a share, up from $919,297, or 3 cents, a year earlier. Two days later it reported its intent to enter a joint venture with U.S.-based hog production company M2P2.
China has been building it hog herd after swine disease a few years ago reduced pork production there.
AgFeed has 30 hog production farms in China, 2,000 employees, and five feed plants, Its fiscal 2008 revenue was $143.6 million with a net income of $16.9 million. (Reporting by Bob Burgdorfer and Doris Frankel, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
