Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) Trading Up 6% on Analyst Upgrade

Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)’s share price rose 6% during mid-day trading on Friday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $44.00 to $46.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. Darling Ingredients traded as high as $40.04 and last traded at $40.03. Approximately 195,781 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average daily volume of 2,153,902 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.76.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on DAR. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Darling Ingredients from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Darling Ingredients from $57.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Darling Ingredients from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Darling Ingredients currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.90.

Insider Activity at Darling Ingredients

In other Darling Ingredients news, EVP Robert W. Day purchased 2,532 shares of Darling Ingredients stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was bought at an average price of $39.37 per share, for a total transaction of $99,684.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $496,337.59. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darling Ingredients

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 1.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,610,753 shares of the company’s stock valued at $726,056,000 after acquiring an additional 232,583 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Darling Ingredients by 52.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,236,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,445,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800,809 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in Darling Ingredients by 14.0% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,829,265 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,725,000 after purchasing an additional 470,170 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Darling Ingredients by 55.0% during the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,562,739 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,683,000 after purchasing an additional 554,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC boosted its stake in Darling Ingredients by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,366,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,210,000 after purchasing an additional 15,414 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Trading Up 3.6 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $37.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.94. The company has a market capitalization of $6.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71 and a beta of 1.24.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by ($0.29). Darling Ingredients had a return on equity of 8.38% and a net margin of 6.04%. The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.48 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.77 earnings per share. Darling Ingredients’s revenue was down 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

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.