Darling Ingredients Inc. (DAR) Stock Price & How to Invest

Darling Ingredients is the world's largest publicly traded processor of animal byproducts and food waste, turning materials that would otherwise be discarded into useful ingredients and renewable energy. The company collects used cooking oil, animal fat, bone, blood, feathers, and other byproducts from meat processors, restaurants, and grocers, then renders and refines them into proteins, fats, gelatin, fertilizers, and feedstocks. Its Feed segment produces animal feed ingredients and pet-food proteins, while the Food segment, led by the Rousselot business, is a leading maker of gelatin and collagen used in pharmaceuticals, food, and health products. Darling's most prominent growth driver is Diamond Green Diesel, a renewable-diesel and sustainable-aviation-fuel joint venture with Valero that converts low-carbon fats and oils into clean transportation fuel. The company earns revenue from selling these ingredients globally and from renewable fuel volumes plus associated low-carbon credits. Darling is headquartered in Irving, Texas, and operates rendering and processing plants across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Darling's earnings are highly exposed to volatile commodity and fuel prices, including fats, oils, soybean oil, and renewable-fuel margins. Renewable diesel economics depend heavily on government policy: blenders tax credits, the shift to producer credits, low-carbon fuel standards, and the Renewable Fuel Standard, all of which can change and compress margins. The Diamond Green Diesel venture concentrates a large share of profit in a single program. Feedstock costs can rise, SAF ramp may disappoint, and global rendering is a low-margin, capital-intensive business. The stock has been cyclical and sensitive to policy headlines and fuel-spread swings.

12 analysts publish price targets on DAR, averaging $76.25 against a $58.48 price as of July 2026, or +30.4%. The published targets run from $62.00 to $85.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 11 buy, 1 hold, 0 sell. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full DAR forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Darling Ingredients Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Renewable diesel and SAF. The Diamond Green Diesel joint venture with Valero is the centerpiece growth story, converting waste fats and oils into renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. The most optimistic published target, $85.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Darling's earnings are highly exposed to volatile commodity and fuel prices, including fats, oils, soybean oil, and renewable-fuel margins. The most pessimistic target, $62.00, is roughly what DAR is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on DAR, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Darling Ingredients Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$6 billion
• Operating margin: Mid-single-digit to low-double-digit, cyclical
• EBITDA: ~$1 billion, varies with fuel margins
• Revenue growth: Cyclical, swings with commodity and fuel prices
• P/E (TTM): Moderate, volatile with earnings cycle
• Dividend yield: None (no dividend; reinvests in growth)
• Free cash flow: Variable, pressured by growth capex
• Balance sheet: Leveraged from renewable-fuel investment

Darling's valuation is cyclical and heavily tied to renewable-diesel and feedstock spreads, so reported multiples swing with the fuel-margin cycle. The market often values it on EBITDA and on the long-term earnings power of Diamond Green Diesel rather than trailing earnings. Policy shifts and fuel-spread volatility make the financial profile lumpier than a typical consumer-staples ingredient company.

If you want DAR exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

Other names that sit close to DAR: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get DAR exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (PBW), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so DAR sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where DAR fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Darling Ingredients (DAR) turns a vertically integrated rendering network into low-carbon feedstock for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, alongside specialty collagen and feed ingredients. In a portfolio it behaves as a volatile, leveraged, non-dividend holding whose earnings swing with fuel-margin spreads and biofuel policy, competing with Neste, Tyson, and Gelita, and often grouped with clean-energy or agribusiness themes.

Whether DAR is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is DAR a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the DAR stock forecast.

For income investors, whether DAR pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does DAR pay a dividend? And to weigh DAR against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: DAR vs TSN and DAR vs VLO.