Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Grows Holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 19,213 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 335 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $1,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ADM. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 218,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,781,000 after buying an additional 7,291 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 33.0% in the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 293,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,173,000 after purchasing an additional 72,781 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 12,995 shares of the company’s stock valued at $939,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. increased its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 7,583 shares of the company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners raised its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 716.0% in the fourth quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 6,577 shares of the company’s stock worth $475,000 after buying an additional 5,771 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird downgraded Archer-Daniels-Midland from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $96.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $66.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Citigroup raised their target price on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fifteen have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.50.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Down 0.3 %

ADM stock opened at $59.17 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a 1-year low of $50.72 and a 1-year high of $87.30. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.60. The company has a market capitalization of $29.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.38 and a beta of 0.78.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.35 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $21.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.26 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 3.32% and a return on equity of 13.87%. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.38%. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.09%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland announced that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, March 12th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Profile

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.