KE Holdings, Inc. Class A (2423) Gets a Buy from DBS
In a report released today, Ben Wong from DBS reiterated a Buy rating on KE Holdings, Inc. Class A (2423 – Research Report), with a price target of HK$62.25. The company's shares closed last Friday at HK$49.20.
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According to TipRanks, Wong is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 11.7% and a 54.55% success rate.
KE Holdings, Inc. Class A has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of HK$67.39, representing a 36.97% upside. In a report released on May 8, J.P. Morgan also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a HK$65.00 price target.
The company has a one-year high of HK$73.50 and a one-year low of HK$34.00. Currently, KE Holdings, Inc. Class A has an average volume of 12.36M.
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CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
Top Wall Street analysts prefer these dividend stocks for consistent returns
Earnings of major U.S. companies and the uncertainty around tariffs continued to impact investor sentiment this week. While the stock market remains volatile, investors seeking consistent returns could add some attractive dividend stocks to their portfolios. In this regard, stock picks of top Wall Street analysts can be helpful, as the recommendations of these experts are based on in-depth analysis of a company's financials and ability to pay dividends. Here are three dividend-paying stocks, highlighted by Wall Street's top pros, as tracked by TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. This week's first dividend pick is Home Depot (HD). The home improvement retailer reported mixed results for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 but reaffirmed its full-year guidance. The company expressed its intention to maintain its prices and not increase them in response to tariffs. Home Depot declared a dividend of $2.30 per share for the first quarter of 2025, payable on June 18, 2025. At an annualized dividend of $9.20 per share, HD stock offers a dividend yield of 2.5%. Following the Q1 FY25 results, Evercore analyst Greg Melich reiterated a buy rating on HD stock with a price target of $400. The analyst thinks that the risk/reward profile of Home Depot stock is one of the best in Evercore's coverage. Melich contends that while Home Depot's headline results appear ordinary, he believes that a notable inflection has begun. The analyst highlighted certain positives in Home Depot's Q1 performance, including stabilizing traffic, improving shrink (inventory lost due to theft or other reasons) rates, and acceleration in online sales growth to 8% after staying lower than 5% since Q3 FY22. "HD remains a benchmark retailer, investing in technology, multichannel and stores, even while current demand remains low," concluded Melich. He continues to believe that once the macro environment improves, Home Depot could be the "next great Consumer/Retail breakout multiple stock" like Costco in 2023 and Walmart in 2024. Melich ranks No. 607 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 68% of the time, delivering an average return of 12%. See Home Depot Ownership Structure on TipRanks. Next on this week's list is Diamondback Energy (FANG), an independent oil and gas company that is focused on onshore reserves, mainly in the Permian Basin in West Texas. FANG delivered better-than-expected first-quarter results. However, given the ongoing commodity price volatility, Diamondback reduced its full-year activity to maximize free cash flow generation. Meanwhile, the company returned $864 million to shareholders in Q1 2025 through stock repurchases and a base dividend of $1.00 per share. FANG's Q1 2025 capital return represented roughly 55% of adjusted free cash flow. Based on the base and variable dividends paid over the past 12 months, FANG stock offers a dividend yield of nearly 3.9%. In a recent research note, RBC Capital analyst Scott Hanold reaffirmed a buy rating on FANG stock with a price target of $180. Hanold noted that while the company lowered its 2025 capital budget by $400 million or 10% to $3.4 - $3.8 billion, the production outlook was cut by only 1%. The analyst stated that Diamondback's move to reduce its capital spending plan increased his free cash flow estimate by 7% over the next 18 months. Hanold thinks that the company's decision will not weigh on its operational momentum or the ability to efficiently return to its 500 Mb/d productive capacity. Commenting on FANG's free cash flow priorities, Hanold noted that the company is tracking ahead of its 50% minimum shareholder return target, thanks to stock buybacks amid the pullback in shares, mainly during early April. He expects the company to use the remaining free cash flow to pay down the $1.5 billion term loan related to its Double Eagle-IV acquisition in the Midland Basin, which was announced in February. Overall, Hanold's bullish thesis on FANG stock remains intact, and he believes that "FANG has one of the lowest cost structures in the basin and a corporate cash flow break-even (including dividend) that is among the best in the industry." Hanold ranks No. 17 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 29.1%. See Diamondback Energy Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. Another dividend-paying energy stock in this week's list is ConocoPhillips (COP). The oil and gas exploration and production company reported market-beating earnings for the first quarter of 2025. Given a volatile macro environment, the company reduced its full-year capital and adjusted operating cost guidance but maintained its production outlook. In Q1 2025, ConocoPhillips distributed $2.5 billion to shareholders, including $1.5 billion in share repurchases and $1.0 billion via ordinary dividends. At a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share (annualized dividend of $3.12), COP stock offers a yield of about 3.7%. Following investor meetings with management in Boston, Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Mehta reiterated a buy rating on COP stock with a price target of $119. Mehta highlighted that management sees significant uncertainty in oil prices in the near term due to concerns about economic growth and voluntary production cuts by OPEC+. That said, the company is bullish about long-term gas prices. Meanwhile, the analyst expects COP's breakeven to shift lower in the times ahead, with major growth projects on track. Mehta stated that while the benchmark price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil – also known as WTI – breakeven (before dividend) is in the mid $40s in 2025, he sees the breakeven heading towards the low $30s once COP's LNG spending comes down and production at its Willow project in Alaska comes online in 2029. Commenting on COP's shareholder returns, Mehta stated that management acknowledged that their decision not to stick with the $10 billion capital return target led to short-term volatility in COP stock. That said, COP still offers a "compelling" return, which Mehta estimates will be 8%. Mehta ranks No. 568 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 59% of the time, delivering an average return of 8.6%. See ConocoPhillips Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Who owns most of the farmland in Illinois? Not farmers.
Surrounded by rows of soybeans and corn, Hans Bishop's farm in central Illinois was an anomaly. He grew kale, peppers, eggplants and radishes, selling to Whole Foods from June through October and to local restaurants, grocers and families year-round. The vegetable farm was born in 2009 on a quarter acre rented to him by his father, a row crop farmer. After spending a decade in the corporate world, Bishop was inspired by documentaries such as 'Fresh' and 'Food, Inc.' that scrutinized conventional farming. He returned to the fields with aspirations to farm differently. The fresh produce Bishop grew landed directly on chopping boards and dinner plates. It wasn't being funneled into gasoline tanks, ultra-processed foods or livestock feed troughs — the most common destinations for Illinois' leading agricultural products, soybeans and corn. In less than a decade, his operation in Logan County had expanded to 80 acres. It was becoming what progressive food movements celebrate as 'sustainable.' But he couldn't keep it going. Bishop and his wife Katie spent countless hours on marketing, had to rely on hired labor and couldn't access the federally subsidized safety nets available to commodity now 41, phased out his flourishing vegetable enterprise after his father abruptly retired in 2019, leaving him to take over the family bean and grain operation. Part of the land — 120 of the nearly 700 acres — is rented from a family who owns multiple farm properties and wants their fields weed-free with perfectly straight grids of crops, a deep-rooted tradition among Midwestern farming communities. 'They want that land to be clean corn and soybeans,' Bishop said. Before the restrictions, his father was growing organic corn and soybeans on part of the field and letting Bishop grow vegetables on the rest. Now, to keep the fields to the owner's standards, Bishop has had to forgo vegetables and use pesticides and fertilizers, which can pollute nearby water sources and degrade soil health over time. Less than a fourth of Illinois farmland is owned by the farmer who works the land, according to data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management, a nonprofit association that helps farmers make management decisions. The rest is leased to farmers by individuals, family trusts and, increasingly, businesses. The Tribune is launching a series of special reports analyzing the hurdles many farmers face in trying to be good stewards of the land as climate change intensifies. Among the challenges are fewer opportunities for farmers — and would-be farmers — to own their land. Neither the state nor the federal government maintains a centralized database of farmland ownership. The data is recorded by counties, with varying levels of detail. Some — such as Sangamon and Edgar counties — do not keep digital copies of older records. The Tribune analyzed over 3.7 million acres of farmland in 10 counties with the most fertile soils, highest cash rents in 2024 and available historical data. It found that over 1 in 5 acres are owned by business entities — organizations with LLC, Inc, LTD, Co., Corp, LP and LLP tags. This is an almost 170% increase since 2005. In the same 20-year window, farmland owned by businesses with out-of-state mailing addresses increased by nearly 250%. These acres are not necessarily owned by large conglomerates and investment firms. Corporate structures are also attractive vehicles for family businesses because they offer tax benefits and externalize losses. But, farmland is becoming a more attractive investment option as the historically fertile ground in the American West dries up. 'Water availability threatens farmland in the Central Valley (of California) far more than what the next 20 years of climate change will bring to Illinois,' said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. Average farmland rents in Illinois have already outstripped the inflation rate, more than doubling from $129 to $269 per acre per year from 2005 to 2024. '(The rising price of land) just makes it really hard for anyone who's not a corporation or doesn't have that capital on hand to actually invest in that farmland,' said University of Illinois agricultural economist Brittney Kay Goodrich. There are few guardrails to abate a corporate takeover. Illinois is one of the only states in the Corn Belt that doesn't place restrictions on corporate purchases of farmland. Short-term leases also disincentivize farmers from growing anything but corn and soybeans the traditional way, according to Goodrich's colleague Gary Schnitkey. The market for fruits and vegetables is small in Illinois' grain- and bean-dominated agricultural sector. And it often takes a few years of additional expenses and reduced yields to realize the benefits of soil health practices, such as planting cover crops, reducing tillage and limiting fertilizer use. Farmers reported being more likely to adopt conservation practices on land they owned. While land management was once about safeguarding an inheritance for the next generation, it's now a matter of paying rent in a market where farmland has become an increasingly competitive asset to secure. Concerns over simply holding on to land from one year to the next eclipse long-term thinking about the stability of the nation's food supply. Over 80% of Illinois' 26.3 million acres of farmland is dedicated to corn and soybeans. Meanwhile, climate change is accelerating water scarcity in the Central Valley and Southwest, the two regions responsible for most domestically grown fruits and vegetables. 'I don't like the fact that there's so much corn and soybeans in the Midwest,' said Bishop. 'But, to some degree, I was just like, why make it harder on myself and fight the system?' Illinois' nutrient-rich soil — colloquially called 'black dirt' — and relative abundance of water have been catching the attention of investors. At the moment, no one person or business has a dominant stake in the state's millions of acres of farmland. The top 10 landowners collectively hold just under 1% of it, according to a 2024 analysis by Michael Lauher, the president of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Three of the largest owners are real estate investment firms: Farmland Reserve, an investment vehicle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Farmland Partners, a publicly traded company based in Denver; and Ceres Partners, a pooled fund based in Indiana. The University of Illinois is No. 5 with 36 endowed farms. Those who donate the land can choose to direct farm income to research, scholarships or other university initiatives, according to the director of the university's agricultural property services, Anita Million. The rest of the top 10 are families and business tycoons, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Gaylon Lawrence Jr., who also owns a string of Napa Valley wineries, and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan. Representatives for Gates, Lawrence and Khan did not respond to requests for comment. The entity through which Gates owns his farmland, Cascade Investment LLC, is separate from the billionaire's philanthropic efforts in the climate and environment space. Farmland Reserve is the largest farmland owner in Illinois. The private Salt Lake City-based investment firm affiliated with the Mormon Church declined to share how many acres it owns, but Lauher's analysis estimates it has nearly 54,000. The Midwest's farmland is poised to become an even more attractive investment as it becomes a lynchpin for national food security. Warming temperatures and water shortages are shifting growing zones from Central America and California north. 'Illinois is incredibly strong,' said Paul Pittman, founder and executive chairman of Farmland Partners, the second-largest farmland owner in Illinois, during a 2024 fourth-quarter earnings call in February. The firm, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, states on its homepage that its 'core business is purchasing high-quality farmland then leasing that land back to farmers at the highest possible rents — thus deriving returns for company investors through income revenue and asset appreciation.' The grandson of Illinois farmers, Pittman began buying farmland in Illinois, Colorado and Nebraska in the late 1990s after success as an investment banker and entrepreneur. He included several of his own properties in Farmland Partners' portfolio when the company, which was valued at over $520 million in late May, went public in 2014. Almost half of the nearly 92,500 acres the company owns are in Illinois. Pittman, who lives in Colorado, said the company is continuing to invest in the Midwest but limiting its footprint in California — which produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruit, nuts and vegetables. He cited the availability of water as the primary factor. 'We will frankly continue to lessen our exposure to California,' he said during the latest earnings call in early May. A recent study using satellite imaging showed that the Southwest has been getting drier while the rest of the country has been getting wetter over the last 40 years. Jay Famiglietti, an Arizona-based hydrologist and co-author of the study, attributes this trend to climate change. 'When these places run out of water — and it's when not if — there are opportunities for the wetter parts of the United States to fill that food gap. So, huge opportunities for Illinois,' Famiglietti said. Vegetables, melons and potatoes are a $1.4 billion market in Arizona, according to the latest federal agriculture census. Fruits, tree nuts and berries are a $23.1 billion market in California. In Illinois, vegetables, melons and potatoes account for less than $180 million in agricultural production. Fruits, tree nuts and berries only account for $34 million. Meanwhile, corn and soybeans account for over $21.2 billion. The investors and climatologists the Tribune spoke with predict the Midwest's agricultural sector will only become more lucrative as water strain causes the West's sector to contract. None of the investors, however, expressed interest in bringing fruits, vegetables and nuts from the West to the Midwest. Rather, they all expressed a strong belief in the continued profitability of a soybean- and corn-dominated agriculture system. 'One of the reasons we've focused on the Great Lakes region and the eastern Corn Belt is because of the fantastic soil quality and weather patterns. The cheapest form of irrigation is rain when you're growing a crop,' said Brandon Zick, chief investment officer of Ceres Partners, which is Illinois' seventh-largest landowner with over 22,000 acres. 'We view this as a great safety net.' Eight states in the Corn Belt — Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, South Dakota and Wisconsin — restrict the size, structure and purpose of corporations that can own farmland to limit ownership by large investment funds. A Minnesota statute reads: 'The legislature finds that it is in the interests of the state to encourage and protect the family farm as a basic economic unit, to insure it as the most socially desirable mode of agricultural production, and to enhance and promote the stability and well-being of rural society in Minnesota and the nuclear family.' Illinois has no such laws. More than 22% of the farmland in 12 Illinois counties with the highest rents is owned by a business entity, defined as an operation with an LLC, Inc, LTD, Co., Corp, LP or LLP tag. Sangamon and Edgar counties were included in this analysis because historical data was not one-fourth of this farmland owned by a business entity had out-of-state mailing addresses. Layered corporate structures often obfuscate who owns the land: Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello II did not respond to requests for comment about farmland ownership. State legislators have yet to take up corporate ownership generally either. But Republicans in the Illinois House and Senate introduced separate bills in January to limit farmland ownership by foreign individuals and companies. Neither had progressed beyond a first reading. About 3% of Illinois farmland is foreign-held, according to federal data. 'It makes me nervous not knowing who these individuals or companies are,' said Sally Turner, a senator representing rural central Illinois who introduced one of the bills. 'I have a big nuclear power plant in my district, and I don't know who the landowners are around that area.' Rep. Chris Miller, a third-generation cattle farmer and grain operator in Coles County who introduced the other bill, did not respond to requests for comment. Similar bills barring foreign ownership of agricultural land have been unsuccessfully introduced in previous legislative sessions. While primarily worried about foreign parties, Turner also expressed concern that domestic companies could be driving up land prices. Farmland has traditionally been an heirloom passed from one generation to the next. Parents were motivated to ensure the long-term health of the soil and surrounding waterways so they had something valuable to pass down to their children. Investment firms prioritize profits. 'When you run a public company, even if it's an agricultural farming company, and somebody asks you, what do you grow? It's money. My ethical obligation is to make money for my shareholders,' Pittman, CEO of Farmland Partners, told the Tribune. During its May earnings call, Pittman said the real estate company had imposed 15% to 20% rent hikes on properties nationwide in recent years. Most of its lease contracts are three years, and tenants are required to pay at least half of their annual rent before the spring planting season. These terms allow Farmland Partners to raise rents often and mitigate the risk of a bad growing season getting in the way of its bottom line. Ceres Partners, the Indiana-based investment fund, has three- to five-year leases with tenant farmers. Zick, the chief financial officer, pitched it as a favorable alternative to the year-to-year leases many farmers find themselves tethered to. But there's a caveat. Ceres Partners' leases let it raise rents if the commodity markets are doing well. There's no room, however, to lower rents if the markets suffer. Despite largely unfavorable terms, farmers tend to renew their leases because land is hard to come by. Most tenant farmers with Farmland Reserve, Illinois' largest farmland owner, have renewed their leases for over a decade, said spokesman Dale Bills via email. The Mormon Church-affiliated investment firm declined an interview and wouldn't disclose how much land it owns or what it charges in rent. Zick said Ceres Partners only makes deals with farmers it intends to work with for years. And Pittman said Farmland Partners sees if its current tenants can pay their new asking price before putting the land up for auction to the highest bidder. 'We do not have short-term relationships. Only a percentage of our farms get turned over to the new tenant in any given year, even if the lease is up,' said Pittman. He insists Farmland Partners has a vested interest in the long-term health of the land and prefers tenant farmers who are apt to adopt conservation practices. 'When you own the asset, about a third of your return is your current yield. Two-thirds of your return is land appreciation. If you're not doing the right thing over the long run, the land appreciation side gets hurt and that's a bigger piece of the puzzle,' he said. Ultimately, Farmland Partners and Farmland Reserve both describe themselves as 'passive investors,' meaning that they don't tell their tenants how to manage the land. Ceres Partners takes a more active approach to land management, adding irrigation and drainage systems to its properties to increase land values and requiring farmers to maintain soil fertility levels. Goodrich, the U. of I. economist, worries that a corporate takeover by money-hungry investors will make short-term leases and exponentially rising rents more common. In turn, farmers will be less willing to invest in capital-intensive conservation practices that prove beneficial over time on rented land. 'It's going to lead to more of these mismatches in incentives,' she said. 'If (the corporation) is not providing an incentive to plant cover crops, why would a farm plant cover crops when it could potentially affect their yields and is more risky for them to do so?' Zick said Ceres Partners actively seeks to buy farms from individuals and families acting as landlords. He framed it as a way to let current tenants remain on a parcel if they cannot afford to buy it themselves, but he noted that they might see a rent hike. 'We knew the market for rent that the widow didn't understand,' he said, explaining why they have raised rent from about $100 to $275 per acre on plots they bought from older women who acquired the land after their husbands died. The majority of Illinois' farmland is still owned by families. It's been passed down from one generation to another. But, given that more than three-fourths of farmland is leased, most of these owners are not farming. This has made it increasingly difficult for young people with different visions for Illinois' fields to make inroads into agriculture. 'Many people only own farmland because they're related to settlers in Illinois. It's like we've created our own form of land gentry,' Mary Jane Oviatt said. The 28-year-old aspiring farmer was wearing hiking boots and jeans while sitting in an indie coffee shop in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood on an April afternoon. No one in Oviatt's immediate family farmed, and she arrived at the U. of I. for her undergraduate degree with plans to become an environmental lawyer. Frequent road trips from her home in Wheaton, a town 30 miles west of Chicago, to college in central Illinois inspired her to explore agriculture. 'It seemed desolate,' she said, recalling field after field of corn stubble and dirt from fall to spring. 'I had an instinct to save it, to make it green.' She immersed herself in farming through a series of internships with small diversified farms. And since graduating, she has worked as an educator at the Savanna Institute, a Champaign-based nonprofit that promotes agroforestry, a land management technique that integrates trees with crops. Her days are filled with Zoom meetings taken from her Chicago apartment and occasional visits to farms downstate. Eventually, she'd like to buy 50 to 100 acres where she can grow fruits, vegetables and nuts — 'things people actually eat' — but every day that dream feels more out of reach. 'Unless I win the lottery or inherit a lot of money, I can't afford to buy my own farmland,' Oviatt said. Her sentiments are similar to those of young Americans trying to buy a home. The median age of a first-time homebuyer rose from 29 in 1981 to an all-time high of 38 in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors. Meanwhile, the share of first-timers in the market has dropped from 44% to 24%. Rising prices have been cited as a driving factor. Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Nikki Budzinski joined a bipartisan group of congressmen to introduce the New Producer Economic Security Act. The Democrat represents parts of four of the nine counties with the highest cash rent. 'If we are going to revitalize and strengthen American agriculture going forward, we need to take steps now to ensure young farmers can succeed,' she said in a news release. The bill, which is still sitting in committee, would provide financial support to farmers with less than 10 years of experience as the average age of the American farmer inches toward 60. The lawmakers want to include it in the next federal Farm Bill, a comprehensive package of legislation guiding agriculture and food policy that is long overdue for reexamination. Meanwhile, in Springfield, state Sen. Turner introduced the Farmland Transition Commission Act. The bill, which passed the General Assembly and is on the governor's desk, would establish a team within the state Department of Agriculture to study the barriers young adults encounter when buying or accessing farmland. During an interview with the Tribune in May, Turner suggested exploring possible tax incentives for companies that rent to beginning farmers. But it's not just young people who are struggling to keep up. Like longtime renters in the housing market, longtime tenant farmers grapple to contend with rising rents. 'Once I say I'm not interested in paying 10 bucks more an acre this year, they'll find somebody else who will do it and there's no chance of getting that property back,' said Bishop, the Logan County vegetable turned corn and soybean farmer. He's been all but forced to employ conventional corn and soybean farming methods on the 120-acre lease he took over from his father. The arrangement is coordinated by a farm manager on behalf of a family Bishop has never met. The manager sends out a new lease agreement every year, collects Bishop's money, pays the property taxes, takes his cut, and then gives the landowning family the rest. On his other nearly 580 acres, Bishop farms organic corn and soybeans, meaning he doesn't use fertilizers or pesticides. He learned from his father, who was an early adopter of organic farming. The 120 leased acres were farmed organically — and housed some of Bishop's vegetables — until the manager and landowner decided they wanted neat and tidy fields when renegotiating the contract with Bishop. If he wouldn't use chemicals to kill weeds and make the plot look like their neighbors', they'd find another farmer. On the organic acres, most of which he or a family member owns, Bishop strives to plant rye, wheat and red clover — cover crops — between corn and soybean rotations. Keeping a living root in the soil all year helps keep the soil in place, reducing the potential for dust storms like the one Chicago saw last month and dirty runoff. Biodiversity also helps the soil retain nutrients, making it more fertile over time and ultimately reducing the need for fertilizer. But these cover crops are an extra expense and often result in modest yield declines. The cost-benefit analysis isn't as attractive on leased acres. Bishop is less willing to do anything that might reduce his yields when he has to pay rent increases. Plus, with a year-to-year lease, Bishop doesn't have assurance he'll be on the field long enough to reap the benefits. 'You just keep applying band-aids instead of trying to build a larger ecological system,' he said. In this case, that band-aid is more fertilizer. Planting the same crops repeatedly upsets the natural balance of the soil by stripping it of certain varieties of bacteria and microorganisms needed to maintain fertility. Farmers who only plant one or two varieties must apply increasing amounts of chemical fertilizers to compensate for the loss of naturally occurring nutrients. Without varied root structures to trap moisture and hold the soil in place, those chemicals are more likely to flow into local waterways with eroded soil. 'Farmers, including myself, are seeing erosion take place in areas where we've never seen it happen before,' said Kris Reynolds, a fifth-generation corn and soybean farmer working over 700 acres in Montgomery County. Fertilizer runoff flowing down the Mississippi River basin continues to worsen, contaminating water from Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. 'Crop diversification is needed,' continued Reynolds, who is also a certified crop adviser and the Midwest director of American Farmland Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting farmland from environmental degradation and development. 'When you couple that with other soil health practices like cover crops and no-till, you can really maximize your efficiency and decrease overall nutrient loss.' He owns about a quarter of his land and leases the rest from his family, which he acknowledges makes it easier for him to adopt conservation practices. 'We often see that farmers who own the vast majority of their land are the ones who are more likely to adopt these practices consistently across all of their acres,' said Reynolds. Federal and state conservation programs do exist to help cover the profit gap farmers often incur when transitioning to sustainable practices like cover crops, but enrollment can be complicated by lease terms. Rob Woodrow, a farm manager based in Sangamon County, said none of the 38,000 acres of farmland he manages are enrolled in such conservation programs because they are an 'encumbrance.' Participation raises questions about whether payments go to the landowner or farmer, and since many programs are multiyear, they're difficult to administer on farms that are prone to change hands. 'About 95% of the time, (the landowners) are removed from (the farm) by several generations. They've inherited it from grandma or grandpa,' said Woodrow. 'They don't know how to handle the land. It's viewed as an investment instead of a family farm.' He said this is demonstrated in the way landowning families have steadily transitioned away from crop-share agreements — an arrangement where the landowner and farmer share costs and revenue — to cash rent. Under a crop-share, farmers and landowners split the risk associated with adopting conservation practices. Meanwhile, with cash rent, which is the basis of what Farmland Partners, Farmland Reserve and Ceres use, farmers assume all the risk. Landowners are detached from daily operations and guaranteed a fixed income. Investment firms are betting that, as landowning generations become further removed from farming, there will be a steady transition of land from individuals to corporations. 'An aging farmer generation, fractional family ownership structure and technological advances requiring sizable capital investment will naturally transition farmland holdings from individuals to institutions,' said international asset manager PGIM Real Estate in a 2024 guide on U.S. farmland titled 'Low Hanging Fruit.' Among rows of conventionally grown corn and soybeans, there are glimmers of an alternative being spearheaded by forward-thinking farmers such as Bishop and curious landowners such as Jim Polston. Polston, a park planner and municipal project manager who spent his professional life in Oklahoma and Oregon before recently retiring to Washington state, inherited 103 acres in DeWitt County when his mother died in 1989. Both his sisters, who also aren't farmers, inherited adjacent plots. With it, they each inherited a farmer who had been planting corn and soybeans conventionally for decades. When Polston's farmer died, he transferred the lease to the farmer's brother with little thought. 'We didn't know what we were doing. We were given row crops. It's always been row crops,' said Polston, who was living in Oklahoma at the time. But, after watching his former farmer fall ill with cancer and wondering if it was related to chemical exposure, Polston felt compelled to switch his farm to organic production. 'We hope for (our daughter) to inherit a piece of land that's not just garbage,' Polston said. He reached out to Bishop, who had gained a reputation as one of the few farmers in the area growing organic beans and grain, in 2021 and they signed a lease. Polston's decision to transition his 103 acres to organic farming came with sacrifice. It took three years to expel the chemicals from the soil. To make the interim years worth it for Bishop, Polston took a smaller rent payment that just covered the property taxes. He made no profit. Last year was the first year the harvest was certified organic. Because of pressures from weeds and pests, organic corn and soybean yields are typically lower than conventional yields, but organic crops sell for significantly more on the market. In the last decade, Woodrow's Farmland Solutions has also expanded its offerings to include organic farm management. About 4,000 of the 38,000 acres it now oversees are organic. This was similarly spurred by landowner interest. 'I didn't know much about organics at the time. The first thing that came to my mind was weedy fields and half the yields of conventional,' admitted Woodrow. 'It's a generational shift bringing the organic shift.' While the fields aren't those neat rows the Midwest is known for, Woodrow said yields have risen over time and weeds have been brought under control. 'We're using nature to help control the weeds,' he said with a touch of awe. When Polston comes back to visit his farm, his neighbors poke fun at him for having a messy field, but it doesn't bother him. 'I don't care if my land doesn't look as good as the next guy's. I know my land is getting healthier every year,' he Atkins is a freelancer.
Business Insider
5 hours ago
- Business Insider
Kepler Capital Sticks to Their Buy Rating for Rexel SA (0KBZ)
In a report released on May 30, William Mackie from Kepler Capital maintained a Buy rating on Rexel SA (0KBZ – Research Report), with a price target of €31.00. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter According to TipRanks, Mackie is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 8.6% and a 60.69% success rate. Mackie covers the Industrials sector, focusing on stocks such as ABB Ltd, Rexel SA, and Weir Group plc (The). Rexel SA has an analyst consensus of Strong Buy, with a price target consensus of €28.80. Based on Rexel SA's latest earnings release for the quarter ending June 30, the company reported a quarterly revenue of €4.81 billion and a net profit of €175.95 million. In comparison, last year the company earned a revenue of €4.88 billion and had a net profit of €214.2 million
