Why Agrium Is Poised to Bounce Back

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, fertilizer producer Agrium (NYSE: AGU  ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Agrium, and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Agrium facts

Headquarters (founded)	Calgary, Canada (1931)
Market Cap	$13.8 billion
Industry	Fertilizers and agricultural chemicals
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$16.7 billion
Management	CEO Michael Wilson (since 2003) CFO Stephen Dyer (since 2011)
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)	21.1%
Cash/Debt	$726.0 million / $4.0 billion
Dividend Yield	2.2%
Competitors	CF Industries PotashCorp

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 98% of the 1,767 members who have rated Agrium believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.

Earlier this week, one of those Fools, Googlespooch, succinctly summed up the Agrium bull case for our community:

Agrium has been able to do well as a diversified agriculture company. They have a strong presence in the nitrogen business (very profitable). They also have been able to keep up good margins in their seed business. They have also been able to grow alternative forms of income rapidly over the last few years albeit at the loss of some gross margin with regards to that division of their revenues. Besides all of that, Agrium is in a business that is essential to life as we know it: providing the inputs to produce food for millions of Americans. If all of that was not enough, they have a good dividend ratio and a tendency to grow that dividend consistently.

If you want market-thumping returns, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Of course, despite a strong five-star rating, Agrium may not be your top choice.

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Editor's note: In a previous version of this article we incorrectly stated that the CEO is Michael Dyson, when in fact it is Michael Wilson. The Motley Fool regrets the error.