Harbor Advisors LLC Takes $217,000 Position in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Harbor Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Tompkins Financial Corp acquired a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Legacy Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Operose Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC grew its stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 37.3% during the 3rd quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 641 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 174 shares during the period. 78.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered 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 research note on Wednesday, March 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $116.00 to $56.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Roth Capital cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. TheStreet cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fifteen have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.50.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Price Performance

Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland stock traded down $0.71 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $61.79. 3,195,134 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,029,632. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $65.48. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a twelve month low of $50.72 and a twelve month high of $87.30. The company has a market cap of $31.00 billion, a PE ratio of 9.65 and a beta of 0.77.

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

Archer-Daniels-Midland declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, March 12th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire up to 6.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 8th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. This is an increase from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 7th. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s payout ratio is 31.25%.

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.