Bad News For Cargill Could Be Good News For You
Commodity prices are falling. If the drop is driven by the right reasons, it might be an economic boon.
Amber waves.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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These are lean(ish) times for Cargill Inc., the Wayzata, Minnesota, food giant that is America’s largest privately held company. After hitting all-time highs of $4.9 billion in 2020/2021 and then $6.7 billion in 2021/2022, the company’s net profit for the fiscal year that ended in May was the lowest since 2015/2016. It still amounted to $2.5 billion, a number that Javier Blas got from an insiders-only report. Cargill will survive, and surely thrive again before all too long. But for the members of the Cargill-MacMillan family who own its shares, the company’s profit decline means a sharp drop in dividend payouts that averaged about $1 billion a year over the past three years. “For lesser clan members, who rely heavily on dividends,” Javier writes, “it would be a shock.”