Palouse Capital Management Inc. Takes $86,000 Position in Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)

Palouse Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $86,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of DAR. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Darling Ingredients by 203.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,844,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,134,000 after buying an additional 1,235,985 shares in the last quarter. Paloma Partners Management Co grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 838,047 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH purchased a new position in Darling Ingredients in the third quarter valued at about $30,545,000. ING Groep NV grew its stake in Darling Ingredients by 244.1% in the third quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 810,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,103,000 after purchasing an additional 574,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in Darling Ingredients by 17.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,324,217 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,528,000 after purchasing an additional 491,477 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Stock Performance

DAR opened at $40.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $6.50 billion, a PE ratio of 23.64 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $35.83 and a 200-day moving average of $37.54. Darling Ingredients Inc. has a 52-week low of $32.55 and a 52-week high of $48.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.41.

Darling Ingredients (NYSE:DAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 research analysts forecast that Darling Ingredients Inc. will post 2.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on DAR. Citigroup lowered their target price on Darling Ingredients from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Darling Ingredients from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Darling Ingredients from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 target price on shares of Darling Ingredients in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Darling Ingredients has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.22.

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.