Ellsworth Advisors LLC Has $3.79 Million Stock Holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 52,537 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,320 shares during the period. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland were worth $3,794,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 71.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 18,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,688,000 after buying an additional 7,821 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland in the first quarter worth $277,000. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new position in Archer-Daniels-Midland during the first quarter worth $226,000. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. raised its stake in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 22.0% during the 1st quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 31,004 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,798,000 after purchasing an additional 5,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Archer-Daniels-Midland by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 459,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,512,000 after purchasing an additional 9,327 shares during the period. 78.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on ADM shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Barclays cut Archer-Daniels-Midland from an “overweight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $90.00 to $67.00 in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Roth Capital lowered Archer-Daniels-Midland from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $96.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and fifteen have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.00.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Price Performance

Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $62.81. 4,120,593 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,835,845. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company has a fifty-two week low of $50.72 and a fifty-two week high of $87.30. The company has a market cap of $32.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.81 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 12th. The company reported $1.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.43 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $22.98 billion for 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%. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s quarterly revenue was down 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Archer-Daniels-Midland Company will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archer-Daniels-Midland Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 7th. This is a positive change from Archer-Daniels-Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.18%. Archer-Daniels-Midland’s payout ratio is currently 31.25%.

Archer-Daniels-Midland declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, March 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.