UPDATE: Credit Suisse Reiterates Neutral Rating, Lowers PT on Archer Daniels Midland Company on Falling Ethanol Prices

In a report published Wednesday, Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow reiterated a Neutral rating on

, but lowered the price target from $55.00 to $52.00. In the report, Credit Suisse noted, "ADM beat consensus in 4Q with $1.00 in EPS (vs $0.94) but the upside came from ethanol (which has since slipped close to break-even) and the highly volatile Agricultural Services division. Management confirmed a weak start to the year for ethanol due to rising inventories and said that Agricultural Services is unlikely repeat its 4Q performance. In addition, as with Ingredion, we didn't hear as much conviction as we had hoped for regarding high fructose corn syrup pricing, presumably because a good portion of the customer base locked into contracts before Cargill closed its plant. Guidance for $1.5-$2.0 billion of share repurchase exceeded our expectation, and management sweetened the pot with a 17% dividend increase. But we are lowering our 2015 EPS estimate to $3.33 to take into account a more conservative corn processing outlook. We are also lowering our target price to $52/share based on a ~14.5x P/E against our more conservative 2016 EPS estimate of $3.64." Archer Daniels Midland Company closed on Tuesday at $48.76.