The company placed its CFO on administrative leave and lowered its fourth-quarter forecast
The shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Co (NYSE:ADM) are plummeting today, after the food processing giant placed CFO Vikram Luthar on administrative leave due to an investigation into accounting practices in its nutrition unit, per the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company also announced lower-than-expected fourth-quarter guidance, after which Barclays downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "overweight" and cut its price target to $60 from $95.
At last glance, ADM was down 19.4% at $54.94, its lowest levels since February 2021. The stock is on the short sell restricted (SSR) list today amid the volatility, and currently down 35.2% since last January.
Over in the options pits, 12,000 calls and 13,000 puts have been exchanged so far, which is five times the average options volume typically seen at this point. The weekly 1/26 50-strike put is the most popular, with new positions being bought to open there.
Puts were popular leading up to today's trading. ADM's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.92 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 90% of readings from the past year, showing options bears chiming in at a much faster-than-usual rate.