UPDATE 2-Mosaic fiscal Q4 profit more than doubles

SAN FRANCISCO, July 22 (Reuters) - Fertilizer producer Mosaic Co said on Thursday quarterly profit more than doubled on strong potash sales and higher margins.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, ended May 31, the company posted net income of $396.1 million, or 89 cents per share, compared with $146.9 million, or 33 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts expected earnings of 86 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue for quarter rose 17 percent to $1.9 billion but came in below the $2.14 billion expected by Wall Street analysts.

During the quarter, potash sales rebounded to 1.8 million tonnes from 0.6 million tonnes a year ago while phosphate sales were flat.

Mosaic had cash and cash equivalents of $2.5 billion at the end of May, compared with $2.7 billion a year earlier.

The company warned that its phosphate operations could be affected if efforts to negate a recently issued permit for an extension of Mosaic's South Ford Meade phosphate rock mine were successful.

A U.S. district judge granted a group headed by the Sierra Club a restraining order earlier this month that effectively suspended a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit that Mosaic is using to operate most of its South Fort Meade, Florida, mine.

That mine is one of Mosaic's most profitable, accounting for about a third of the company's annual phosphate capacity.

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The company said it is seeing a recovery in phosphate and potash demand following a slowdown on 2009.

Total sales for the potash segment of the company are expected to range from 1.2 million to 1.5 million tonnes in the current quarter, while sales for the phosphates segment are expected to be 2.8 million to 3.2 million tonnes, the company said.

Shares of the Plymouth, Minnesota-based company rose slightly in after-market trade after closing up 0.3 percent at $44.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky) Keywords: MOSAIC/ ([e-mail]; 415-349-4720; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.