Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) Shares Sold by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC lessened its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 18,379 shares of the company’s stock after selling 284 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $929,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 41.5% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,430,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,160,755,000 after acquiring an additional 5,702,451 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,382,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $524,531,000 after purchasing an additional 2,296,193 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,045,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,914,408,000 after purchasing an additional 1,018,256 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 33.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,979,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,757,000 after buying an additional 1,007,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 52.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,502,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,738,000 after buying an additional 514,005 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADM has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $49.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $57.00 to $52.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Stephens lowered their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $55.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.33.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE ADM opened at $46.13 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 5.44. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a one year low of $45.01 and a one year high of $66.08. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $50.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $55.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78 and a beta of 0.72.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 2.10% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The business had revenue of $21.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 4.53 EPS for the current year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.51 per share. This is an increase from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.42%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 55.40%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, December 11th that permits the company to repurchase 100,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Profile

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company engages in the procurement, transportation, storage, processing, and merchandising of agricultural commodities, ingredients, flavors, and solutions in the United States, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition.