Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) Lowered to Sell Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Monday morning.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $52.00 target price on shares of Darling Ingredients in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.75.

Darling Ingredients Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DAR opened at $29.90 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a PE ratio of 17.28 and a beta of 1.25. Darling Ingredients has a fifty-two week low of $27.20 and a fifty-two week high of $48.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.41. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.58.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.15. Darling Ingredients had a return on equity of 6.04% and a net margin of 4.88%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Darling Ingredients will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Darling Ingredients

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,567,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $524,486,000 after purchasing an additional 203,921 shares in the last quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Darling Ingredients by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Gates Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,668,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,660,000 after buying an additional 682,529 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Darling Ingredients by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,453,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,425,000 after buying an additional 791,157 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 5.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,357,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $199,096,000 after acquiring an additional 289,407 shares during the period. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC grew its position in shares of Darling Ingredients by 148.9% during the fourth quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 4,393,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,005,000 after acquiring an additional 2,627,785 shares during the last quarter. 94.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Darling Ingredients

Darling Ingredients Inc develops, produces, and sells natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients in North America, Europe, China, South America, and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Feed Ingredients, Food Ingredients, and Fuel Ingredients. It offers ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries.