Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Position in Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 44,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,233,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of DAR. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Darling Ingredients by 107,533.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,663,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $479,659,000 after buying an additional 7,656,389 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Darling Ingredients during the fourth quarter worth $135,362,000. Triodos Investment Management BV purchased a new stake in Darling Ingredients during the third quarter worth $34,698,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Darling Ingredients by 2,618.7% during the third quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 488,868 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,519,000 after buying an additional 470,886 shares during the period. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in Darling Ingredients by 10.4% during the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 4,755,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,256,000 after buying an additional 446,483 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Darling Ingredients

In related news, Director Kurt Stoffel bought 8,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $41.62 per share, for a total transaction of $332,960.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 10,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $439,965.02. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.26% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE DAR opened at $42.38 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.80. The company has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.65 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Darling Ingredients Inc. has a 1 year low of $38.97 and a 1 year high of $71.60.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. Darling Ingredients had a return on equity of 15.05% and a net margin of 9.54%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DAR has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $73.00 to $57.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Stephens decreased their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $55.00 to $50.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $73.82.

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.