Larson Financial Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Larson Financial Group LLC lessened its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,262 shares of the company’s stock after selling 388 shares during the quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $2,186,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 13,303,791 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,003,372,000 after purchasing an additional 252,486 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 41.8% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,641,438 shares of the company’s stock worth $651,737,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547,232 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,696,394 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,779,000 after purchasing an additional 195,255 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,864,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $216,026,000 after purchasing an additional 683,984 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 33.8% in the 3rd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,395,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $180,653,000 after purchasing an additional 605,696 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Roth Capital cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 13th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $51.00 target price (down previously from $104.00) on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fifteen have given a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.50.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Price Performance

Shares of ADM stock traded down $0.83 on Tuesday, reaching $61.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,215,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,002,944. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.48. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a 1 year low of $50.72 and a 1 year high of $87.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The company has a market capitalization of $30.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.77.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.43 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $22.98 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.79 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 3.71%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.93 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 5.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, March 12th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. This is a positive change from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 7th. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s payout ratio is presently 31.25%.

About Archer-Daniels-Midland

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.