Archer Daniels Midland Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:ADM)

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 19,672 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 360% compared to the average daily volume of 4,281 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Archer Daniels Midland in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Archer Daniels Midland from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Archer Daniels Midland from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $57.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $63.00 price target on shares of Archer Daniels Midland in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Archer Daniels Midland from $61.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $58.00.

Archer Daniels Midland Price Performance

ADM opened at $68.58 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.76 and a 200 day moving average of $62.76. The stock has a market cap of $33.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.89, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Archer Daniels Midland has a 52-week low of $40.98 and a 52-week high of $73.72.

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $18.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.03 billion. Archer Daniels Midland had a return on equity of 7.39% and a net margin of 1.34%.The business’s revenue was down 13.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.14 earnings per share. Archer Daniels Midland has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.600-4.250 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Archer Daniels Midland will post 4.31 EPS for the current year.

Archer Daniels Midland Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. This is an increase from Archer Daniels Midland’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.51. Archer Daniels Midland’s payout ratio is currently 93.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Archer Daniels Midland

In other Archer Daniels Midland news, Director David R. Mcatee II bought 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $64.90 per share, with a total value of $486,750.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 7,500 shares in the company, valued at $486,750. This trade represents a ∞ increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jennifer L. Weber sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.04, for a total transaction of $1,676,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 123,668 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,290,702.72. The trade was a 16.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 109,106 shares of company stock valued at $7,539,602. 1.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Archer Daniels Midland

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Toth Financial Advisory Corp bought a new position in shares of Archer Daniels Midland during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Motiv8 Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Sankala Group LLC purchased a new stake in Archer Daniels Midland in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC bought a new position in Archer Daniels Midland during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its position in Archer Daniels Midland by 367.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.28% of the company’s stock.

Archer Daniels Midland Company Profile

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a global agricultural processor and food-ingredient provider that sources, transports and processes oilseeds, corn, wheat and other agricultural commodities. The company operates large-scale crushing, refining and processing facilities that produce vegetable oils, protein meals, corn sweeteners, starches, ethanol, animal feeds and a wide range of food and industrial ingredients. ADM also develops specialty ingredients and solutions for human and animal nutrition, food and beverage formulation, and industrial applications such as bio-based materials and renewable fuels.

ADM’s business combines commodity origination and merchandising with downstream manufacturing and ingredient formulation.