GWN Securities Inc. Buys New Shares in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

GWN Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 4,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ADM. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 41.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,430,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,160,755,000 after purchasing an additional 5,702,451 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,382,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $524,531,000 after acquiring an additional 2,296,193 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 32,045,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,914,408,000 after acquiring an additional 1,018,256 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 33.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,979,867 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,757,000 after acquiring an additional 1,007,494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 56.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 2,473,393 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,340,000 after acquiring an additional 894,562 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stephens cut their price target on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $55.00 to $52.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $49.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from $52.00 to $47.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and six have given a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $53.63.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE ADM opened at $48.02 on Tuesday. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a 1 year low of $44.92 and a 1 year high of $66.08. The stock has a market cap of $23.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.67. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $48.58 and a 200 day moving average of $52.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.07. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a net margin of 2.10% and a return on equity of 10.44%. The company had revenue of $21.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 4.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This is a boost from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.51%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to buyback 100,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally 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.