American Century Companies Inc. Buys 526,425 Shares of Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE:DAR) by 1,003.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 578,908 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 526,425 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Darling Ingredients were worth $19,503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Darling Ingredients by 203.2% in 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 grew its holdings 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 during the period. Erste Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Darling Ingredients in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,545,000. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 491,477 shares during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd boosted its position in shares of Darling Ingredients by 2,200.7% during the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 477,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,078,000 after purchasing an additional 456,482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.44% of the company’s stock.

Darling Ingredients Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:DAR opened at $31.58 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.25 and a beta of 1.25. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.46. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.20 and a 52-week high of $48.39.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on DAR. Citigroup lowered 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 report on Wednesday, January 29th. StockNews.com lowered Darling Ingredients from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of Darling Ingredients in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Darling Ingredients presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.