Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 9,270,000 shares, a decrease of 6.7% from the July 15th total of 9,940,000 shares. Approximately 5.9% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,470,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Darling Ingredients from $51.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Darling Ingredients from $90.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on Darling Ingredients from $57.00 to $45.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on Darling Ingredients from $53.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup raised Darling Ingredients from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darling Ingredients presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.30.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Robert W. Day bought 2,532 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were bought at an average cost of $39.37 per share, for a total transaction of $99,684.84. Following the completion of the acquisition, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,607 shares in the company, valued at $496,337.59. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Darling Ingredients

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,610,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $726,056,000 after buying an additional 232,583 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 24.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,279,247 shares of the company’s stock worth $199,028,000 after purchasing an additional 851,886 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients by 14.0% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,829,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,725,000 after buying an additional 470,170 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Darling Ingredients in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $94,650,000. 94.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Darling Ingredients Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DAR opened at $39.07 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.70 and a beta of 1.26. Darling Ingredients has a one year low of $33.94 and a one year high of $64.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.10. Darling Ingredients had a net margin of 6.04% and a return on equity of 8.35%. The company had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.55 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Darling Ingredients will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

Darling Ingredients Company Profile

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.