Shares in Monsanto tumbled 6% after the seeds giant revealed that its earnings would fall short of Wall Street hopes, and once again extended the scope of its shake-up in the face of a slump in Roundup sales.

The seeds and sprays giant said that its earnings for its 2010 financial year would, on a per share basis, come in at $2.40-2.45, at the lower end of the range it had previously guided too.

Analysts had been hoping for a $2.50-a-share result for the year, which ends today.

Furthermore, the group added a further 650-700 jobs to the cuts it first announced in June last year, and doubled to 1,800 posts in September. "Facility closures" are also envisaged, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday

"The company identified additional opportunities to better align the company's resources," Monsanto said.

The cost cuts would enable the group "to extend its cost management efforts to streamline the Roundup business".

Shares dip 

The costs of the fresh measures, which come in the face of a surge in generic competition to Roundup, will dent profits by $180m, on a pre-tax basis, of which most will be taken this year.

The charge allowed $90m for severance costs, $60m for closures and "exit costs" and $30m for writing down the value of assets affected, the filing revealed.

Monsanto shares, which recovered strongly last month on hopes that a surge in grain prices would improve its profits hopes, closed down 5.8% to $52.65 in New York.

'New chapter' 

The company added that the latest cost cuts would help stabilise at $250m-300m a year profits from Roundup and other glyphosate weedkillers, which Chinese groups are making en masse following the lapse of patents.

It also stuck by a longer-term forecasts of "mid-teens" growth in earnings, after bringing its Roundup business under control.

"We'll� start a new chapter as our growth focus shifts squarely to our seeds-and-traits business," Carl Casale, the Monsanto chief financial officer, said.

In seeds, the group reported "growth growth" in South American sales of its latest genetically-modified products, whose lukewarm take-up in the US this year has also worried investors.