CHICAGO — An external environment that continues to present uncertainties and challenges weighed on earnings at ADM in fiscal 2024, but executives at the Chicago-based company remain encouraged as it gains operational momentum heading into 2025.

Net income in the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, totaled $1.8 billion, equal to $3.65 per share on the common stock, down 48% from $3.48 billion, or $6.43 per share, in fiscal 2023. Segment operating profit was $4.21 billion in fiscal 2024, down 28% from $5.87 billion in fiscal 2023. The most recent year included $490 million in impairment and restructuring charges and settlement contingencies as well as $10 million in gains on the sales of assets, which compared with $361 million and $17 million, respectively, in the same period a year ago.

Revenues in fiscal 2024 totaled $85.53 billion, down 9% from $93.94 billion a year ago.

“We’ve entered 2025 knowing that we need to remain agile to manage through shifts in both trade and regulatory policy around the world, along with the related impacts on geographic supply and demand,” Juan Luciano, president and chief executive officer, said during a Feb. 4 conference call with analysts. “With a global asset base and constantly evolving product innovation, our team is prepared to pivot as needed to support the resiliency of the ag, food energy and industrial sectors we serve.”

As part of its pivot, ADM has defined its business priorities for 2025 with an emphasis on continuing to improve in the areas it believes it can control. First, the company is focused on execution and cost management.

“Having made progress on the issues that impacted North American soy operations, we are applying that experience to the broader global network to drive further operational improvement and cost reductions,” Luciano said. “Similarly, we’re applying what we learn from addressing demand fulfillment challenges in EMEA flavors to drive improvements in similarly challenged areas such as pet nutrition. We’re actively managing our sourcing efforts to take advantage of lower pricing in many of our core input costs such as chemicals and energy. This cost agenda has also supported realigning our focus on data analytics to identify and assess new savings opportunities quickly.

“We’re aggressively managing our SG&A and corporate cost as we make shifts in the business portfolio and lean into our strengthening digital capabilities. We have been diligent in finding ways to prioritize our own organization’s work, which has highlighted opportunities to eliminate noncritical third-party spend and structurally align our organization against our most critical efforts.”

Luciano said ADM is taking steps to deliver $500 million to $750 million in cost savings over the next several years, including $200 million to $300 million in 2025. To help achieve its goal, the company expects to eliminate approximately 600 to 700 positions, including approximately 150 unfilled positions.

Another focus for ADM in the upcoming year is simplification of its portfolio, Luciano said.

“As a company that has grown substantially over the past decade, we are continually evaluating how our portfolio balances the evolving needs of our customers, our expectations to achieve our returns objectives and our ability to be the most efficient operators of each part of the business both in the current external environment and our performance in specific business segments and geographies over the past few years have highlighted additional opportunities to strategically assess how we are focusing our operational capabilities,” he said. “With this, we are considering a phased approach to areas of potential simplification, looking at our business through a variety of lenses with a particular focus on places where we see a history of performance challenges deteriorating demand and or excess capacity that do not have a clear path to improvement. Assets that may require capital investment that does not meet our expected returns objectives, opportunities for targeted synergy acceleration, including potential closures and divestitures, where we see an overlap in capabilities and asset footprint.”

Luciano said ADM has identified a pipeline of approximately $2 billion in portfolio opportunities and will execute on it over time with the objective of maximizing value for ADM shareholders. He said the company will continue to invest in value drivers, with a strategy based on the balance of both productivity and innovation and growth-oriented organic investment.

Following the release of financials, ADM’s share price fell to $45.93 in trading on Feb. 4 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 6.8% from the close of $49.27 on Feb. 3. It was the first time the company’s share price dipped below $46 since briefly reaching its 52-week low of $45 on Nov. 5, 2024.

Within the company’s business units, operating profit at ADM’s Ag Services and Oilseeds division fell to $2.45 billion in fiscal 2024 from $4.07 billion in fiscal 2023. Profit was down 35% in Crushing, down 39% in Ag Services, and down 58% in Refined Products and Other year over year.

ADM said the lower year-over-year total in Ag Services reflected lower South American origination volumes and margins in part due to industry take-or-pay contracts. Meanwhile, the lower Crushing results reflected ample global supplies that drove more balanced supply and demand conditions, which negatively affected margins throughout the year, ADM said.

Operating profit in the Carbohydrate Solutions unit was $1.376 billion in fiscal 2024, up narrowly from $1.375 billion in fiscal 2023. Profit improved 1% in the Starches and Sweeteners business but fell 28% in the Vantage Corn Processors business.