Franklin Resources Inc. Lowers Position in Darling Ingredients Inc. $DAR

Franklin Resources Inc. cut its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) by 24.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 871,443 shares of the company’s stock after selling 279,139 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.55% of Darling Ingredients worth $33,063,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of DAR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,641,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $488,654,000 after purchasing an additional 73,925 shares during the last quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Darling Ingredients by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,915,560 shares of the company’s stock worth $247,282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,247,117 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Darling Ingredients by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,480,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,701,000 after buying an additional 1,026,958 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in Darling Ingredients by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,082,416 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,535,000 after buying an additional 36,085 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Darling Ingredients by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,394,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,036,000 after buying an additional 78,770 shares in the last quarter. 94.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DAR. UBS Group set a $50.00 target price on Darling Ingredients in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded Darling Ingredients from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Darling Ingredients in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Darling Ingredients in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.11.

Darling Ingredients Stock Performance

Shares of DAR opened at $36.64 on Thursday. Darling Ingredients Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.00 and a 1 year high of $42.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.52. The firm has a market cap of $5.80 billion, a PE ratio of 54.69, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.30.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.01). Darling Ingredients had a return on equity of 2.41% and a net margin of 1.84%.The firm had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 2.81 EPS for the current year.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.