Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) by 30.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,371 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,609 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Darling Ingredients were worth $990,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Darling Ingredients by 203.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,844,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,134,000 after acquiring an additional 1,235,985 shares during the period. Paloma Partners Management Co lifted its position in Darling Ingredients by 2,140.4% during the third quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co now owns 877,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,597,000 after purchasing an additional 838,047 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Darling Ingredients during the third quarter valued at about $30,545,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Darling Ingredients by 17.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,324,217 shares of the company’s stock worth $123,528,000 after buying an additional 491,477 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd raised its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients by 2,200.7% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 477,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,078,000 after buying an additional 456,482 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DAR opened at $30.25 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.41. The firm has a market cap of $4.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.49 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.81. Darling Ingredients Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.20 and a fifty-two week high of $48.39.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.15. Darling Ingredients had a return on equity of 6.04% and a net margin of 4.88%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Darling Ingredients from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.75.

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.