Short Interest in Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) Declines By 17.1%

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) was the target of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 13,081,635 shares, a drop of 17.1% from the March 15th total of 15,774,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 5,082,580 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Archer Daniels Midland Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:ADM traded down $1.70 during trading on Friday, reaching $66.98. The company had a trading volume of 4,255,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,851,654. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $69.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.10. Archer Daniels Midland has a fifty-two week low of $46.81 and a fifty-two week high of $74.19.

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $18.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.03 billion. Archer Daniels Midland had a return on equity of 7.39% and a net margin of 1.34%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.14 earnings per share. Archer Daniels Midland has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.600-4.250 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Archer Daniels Midland will post 4.31 EPS for the current year.

Archer Daniels Midland Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 17th. This is an increase from Archer Daniels Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Archer Daniels Midland’s dividend payout ratio is presently 93.69%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ADM. Barclays raised their target price on Archer Daniels Midland from $68.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Archer Daniels Midland in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Archer Daniels Midland in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Archer Daniels Midland from $65.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Archer Daniels Midland from $61.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Ian R. Pinner sold 34,106 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.53, for a total transaction of $2,439,602.18. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 90,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,486,054.28. This trade represents a 27.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Gregory A. Morris sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.48, for a total value of $3,424,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 300,122 shares in the company, valued at $20,552,354.56. This trade represents a 14.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 109,106 shares of company stock worth $7,539,602 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Archer Daniels Midland

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Toth Financial Advisory Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Sankala Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland by 367.0% in the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. 78.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Archer Daniels Midland

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a global agricultural processor and food-ingredient provider that sources, transports and processes oilseeds, corn, wheat and other agricultural commodities. The company operates large-scale crushing, refining and processing facilities that produce vegetable oils, protein meals, corn sweeteners, starches, ethanol, animal feeds and a wide range of food and industrial ingredients. ADM also develops specialty ingredients and solutions for human and animal nutrition, food and beverage formulation, and industrial applications such as bio-based materials and renewable fuels.

ADM’s business combines commodity origination and merchandising with downstream manufacturing and ingredient formulation.