ADM can live with blocked takeover

Article Excerpt

ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND CO. $43 (New York symbol ADM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 659.0 million; Market cap: $28.3 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 0.3; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.adm.com) has been forced to drop its offer to buy the 80.2% of GrainCorp, a leading Australian grain-storage and shipping company, that it does not already own. That’s because Australian foreign investment regulators have blocked a full takeover. However, they could let Archer Daniels increase its GrainCorp stake to 24.9%. That would still let it profit as Australia ships more crops to Asia. Meanwhile, the company is using the $3.0 billion it would have spent on this purchase to raise its quarterly dividend by 26.3%, to $0.24 a share from $0.19. The new annual rate of $0.96 yields 2.2%. It also plans to buy back 3% of its shares in 2014. Archer Daniels Midland is a buy. buy…