Essex Financial Services Inc. Increases Stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Essex Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) by 14.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,561 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,105 shares during the quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $837,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ADM. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,045,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,914,408,000 after purchasing an additional 1,018,256 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 41.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,430,111 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,160,755,000 after buying an additional 5,702,451 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,382,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $524,531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,296,193 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 33.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,979,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,757,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 1.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,607,843 shares of the company’s stock worth $215,533,000 after acquiring an additional 63,883 shares during the period. 78.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Down 2.6 %

Archer-Daniels-Midland stock opened at $45.22 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 5.44, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a 12-month low of $45.01 and a 12-month high of $66.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.53 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $50.42 and a 200 day moving average of $55.08.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $21.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $22.77 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 2.10% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The company’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.36 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 4.53 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.51 dividend. This is a positive change from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.51%. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s dividend payout ratio is 55.40%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADM has been the topic of several research reports. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $55.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $56.00 to $50.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $49.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $52.00 to $47.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Archer-Daniels-Midland has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.11.

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.