Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 10,468 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 85% compared to the average daily volume of 5,658 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America dropped their target price 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. Stephens dropped their price objective on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $55.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup raised their target price on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Archer-Daniels-Midland from $51.00 to $49.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective 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 analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have assigned a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.89.

Institutional Trading of Archer-Daniels-Midland

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 3rd quarter valued at about $48,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland by 0.9% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 114,149 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,819,000 after acquiring an additional 1,043 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 4.8% during the third quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 23,055 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,377,000 after acquiring an additional 1,050 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 1.6% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 25,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,516,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Trading Up 2.4 %

NYSE ADM opened at $50.61 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Archer-Daniels-Midland has a 52 week low of $44.92 and a 52 week high of $66.08. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $48.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.44. The company has a market cap of $24.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.67.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.14 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 business had revenue of $21.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $22.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.36 EPS. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Archer-Daniels-Midland will post 4.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, December 11th that authorizes the company to buyback 100,000,000 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.51 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.03%. This is an increase from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s payout ratio is 56.51%.

About Archer-Daniels-Midland

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.