Food products maker Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) on Thursday received a big downgrade from analysts at Morgan Stanley.

The firm cut its rating on ADM from “Overweight” to “Equal-weight”, citing a bad corn crop situation that could hurt consensus earnings expectations.

A Morgan Stanley analyst commented, “Entering typically hot & dry July and August, we see real risk that i) the US crop gets worse than consensus expects; and ii) higher grain prices could both last longer — and push ‘normalized’ EPS power out farther than consensus expects.”

Morgan Stanley’s move follows a similar downgrade on ADM from Citigroup analysts earlier this month.

Archer Daniels Midland shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Thursday.

The Bottom Line
Shares of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have a 2.53% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $27.66. The stock has technical support in the $24-$26 price area. If the shares can firm up, we see overhead resistance around the $30-$32 price levels.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.