Stocks tied to agriculture shine in Iowa Terra Nitrogen and Art's-Way are among those to enjoy strong showings in 2007 By The Associated Press
DES MOINES (AP) -- It wasn't a big surprise that four of five top-performing stocks in Iowa last year were tied to agriculture.
Terra Industries Inc. and its sister company, Terra Nitrogen Co. LP, have more than tripled its return to shareholders.
"It's no surprise," said Joe Ewing, vice president of investor relations at the Sioux City-based fertilizer company. "It's higher grain prices."
Art's-Way Manufacturing Co., an Armstrong-based farm equipment maker, has seen its shares nearly quadruple in 2007.
Jim Drewitz, a company spokesman, said shares were up nearly seven-fold as recently as mid-December in part because of a favorable review of the company in Investors Business Daily.
"We're thankful for Investors Business Daily recognizing the fact that the company is improving," he said.
Among 36 publicly traded stocks followed by The Des Moines Register, 13 increased in share price last year; 22 lost and one was unchanged. Eleven beat the Dow Jones Industrial average, which rose 7 percent.
Terra Nitrogen was the top performing Iowa Advertisement
company. Its stock rose $4.60 on Monday to end the year at $151.38 -- 388 percent stronger than the beginning of 2007.
ALL Fuels & Energy Co., a startup company based in Johnston, is trying to break into the ethanol industry. It is trying to buy existing ethanol plants and build a network to produce 500 million gallons of ethanol a year. It started the year at around 11 cents per share. It ended 2007 at 59 cents per share -- a 343 percent gain.
Shares of Meta Financial Group Inc., a Storm Lake-based financial company, rose 36.7 percent from $29.80 at the end of 2006 to $40.15 at the end of 2007.
