Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Trims Stock Position in Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich cut its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) by 40.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 147,530 shares of the company’s stock after selling 101,292 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich owned approximately 0.09% of Darling Ingredients worth $5,103,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DAR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in 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 last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co raised its stake in Darling Ingredients by 2,140.4% during the 3rd quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co now owns 877,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,597,000 after acquiring an additional 838,047 shares during the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Darling Ingredients during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,545,000. ING Groep NV raised its stake in Darling Ingredients by 244.1% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 810,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,103,000 after acquiring an additional 574,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Darling Ingredients by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,324,217 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,528,000 after acquiring an additional 491,477 shares during the last quarter. 94.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on DAR. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Darling Ingredients from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.75.

Darling Ingredients Stock Performance

DAR opened at $32.24 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $5.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.64 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.40. Darling Ingredients Inc. has a 1-year low of $31.87 and a 1-year high of $48.39.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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, equities analysts anticipate that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 2.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.