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

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE:ADM) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 20,719 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 627% compared to the average volume of 2,849 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Archer Daniels Midland

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ADM. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Archer Daniels Midland during the second quarter worth about $3,409,089,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Archer Daniels Midland by 2.2% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 17,670,220 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,350,005,000 after purchasing an additional 382,460 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Archer Daniels Midland by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,806,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $276,647,000 after buying an additional 163,749 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Archer Daniels Midland by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,585,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $263,610,000 after buying an additional 179,889 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Archer Daniels Midland during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $257,394,000. 78.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Archer Daniels Midland to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Archer Daniels Midland from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $79.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Archer Daniels Midland from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Archer Daniels Midland from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Archer Daniels Midland from $77.00 to $75.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.83.

Archer Daniels Midland Trading Up 2.5%

ADM stock traded up $1.99 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $82.41. 744,018 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,774,653. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.58, a PEG ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.95. Archer Daniels Midland has a 12-month low of $55.58 and a 12-month high of $88.75.

Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $1.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.35. Archer Daniels Midland had a return on equity of 9.21% and a net margin of 2.16%. The company had revenue of $22.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $22.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.93 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Archer Daniels Midland has set its FY 2026 guidance at 5.150-5.600 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Archer Daniels Midland will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archer Daniels Midland Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Archer Daniels Midland’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.99%.

About Archer Daniels Midland

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) is a global agricultural origination and processing company that converts crops and other plant-based materials into food, feed, fuel and industrial ingredients. The company sources, transports, stores and processes commodities such as corn, soybeans, wheat and oilseeds through an extensive network of elevators, processing facilities and transportation assets.

ADM’s businesses include agricultural services and oilseeds, carbohydrate solutions, and nutrition.