From Google Finance: Archer-Daniels-Midland-Company is engaged in the processing of oilseeds, corn, wheat, cocoa, and other agricultural commodities. The Company’s operations are classified into three business segments: Oilseeds Processing, which includes activities related to the origination, merchandising, crushing, and further processing of oilseeds, such as soybeans and soft seeds (cottonseed, sunflower seed, canola, rapeseed, and flaxseed) into vegetable oils and protein meals; Corn Processing, which is engaged in corn wet milling and dry milling activities, primarily located in the United States, and Agricultural Services, which utilizes its United States grain elevator and global transportation network to buy, store, clean, and transport agricultural commodities, such as oilseeds, corn, wheat, milo, oats, rice, and barley, and resells these commodities primarily as food and feed ingredients and as raw materials for the agricultural processing industry.
ADM Chart:
Statistics:
P/E: 14
Yield: 2.30%
Market Cap: 30.5B
Dividend Growth Rate (5yr): 12%
Payout Ratio: 33%
Years of Dividend Growth: 39 years
Main reason for the purchase... More people in the world and those people need to eat! The stock has pulled back roughly 10% from highs most likely due to the fact that oil has pulled back. One of ADM's business segments is to provide corn for ethanol to be put into gasoline. With the recent pullback in oil, their earnings are not set to grow as much as predicted and therefore the market is pricing the shares a bit cheaper. I just missed the dividend payout but no worries, the company is planning to pay out 30-40% of its earnings, up from the historical payout ratio of 20-25%. Therefore, the dividend should grow quite well in the next few years as evidenced by the 26% increase in 2013 and the 16.6% increase in the dividend this year. The payout is only 33% so there is room to grow at a faster clip than the increase in earnings to get closer to the 40% target payout. Finally, they are planning to repurchase $1.5-2B worth of stock in 2015. I love companies that buyback shares, especially when it appears their company is at fair value or even slightly undervalued. Lets just hope that ADM meanders around this price for the next year or two so the buyback is more effective and the dividends can get reinvested at cheaper prices!
You can check out all the other purchases I have made for the year on my Stock Purchases and Sells page.
So there you have it, the next building block on the path to the American Dividend Dream! What do you think, good purchase, bad purchase? What are you looking to buy next?