Flputnam Investment Management Co. Makes New $332,000 Investment in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 4,596 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $332,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,227,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,534,000 after acquiring an additional 139,064 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,072,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,896,000 after purchasing an additional 31,700 shares in the last quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC lifted its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 543.2% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 28,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,112,000 after purchasing an additional 23,647 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP grew its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 733,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,946,000 after buying an additional 80,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 37.2% during the third quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 17,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,311,000 after buying an additional 4,711 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $66.00 to $60.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. StockNews.com cut Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Roth Capital lowered shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Roth Mkm lowered shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $98.00 to $66.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fifteen have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.50.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Stock Performance

ADM stock opened at $61.74 on Friday. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a 1-year low of $50.72 and a 1-year high of $87.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $58.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.75. The firm has a market cap of $30.98 billion, a PE ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.77.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.43 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $22.98 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.79 billion. Archer-Daniels-Midland had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 3.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.93 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 5.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, March 12th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. This is a boost from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 7th. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.25%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company 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.