ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO. $33 (New York symbol ADM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 658.8 million; Market cap: $21.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.adm.com) will pay $3.5 billion for the 80.2% of GrainCorp, a leading Australian grain-storage and shipping company, that it does not already own. Controlling all of GrainCorp will help Archer Daniels profit as Australia ships more grain and other crops to Asia. The deal should close by the end of 2013.
Meanwhile, Archer Daniels earned $269 million, or $0.41 a share, in the three months ended March 31, 2013. That’s down 32.6% from $399 million, or $0.60 a share, a year earlier. If you exclude writedowns and other unusual items, per-share earnings fell 38.5%, to $0.48 from $0.78.
Last year’s drought in the U.S. increased the prices that Archer Daniels’ food-processing operations paid for soybeans and other crops. That was the main reason for the lower earnings. However, revenue rose 2.7%, to $21.7 billion from $21.2 billion, as falling ethanol inventories helped increase prices.
The stock trades at 13.9 times the $2.37 a share it should earn this year. The $0.76 dividend yields 2.3%.
Archer Daniels Midland is a buy.