The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) Given Average Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) have earned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $85.00.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ANDE. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Andersons to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Texas Capital raised Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings raised Andersons from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Andersons from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th.

Andersons Price Performance

Shares of Andersons stock opened at $70.86 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Andersons has a one year low of $31.84 and a one year high of $82.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.85 and a beta of 0.64. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $65.88.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.42. Andersons had a return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 1.17%.The firm had revenue of $2.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Andersons Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 1st. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 16,466 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.76, for a total transaction of $1,329,794.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 78,409 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,332,310.84. This represents a 17.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 66,466 shares of company stock worth $5,153,667 in the last three months. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Andersons

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Andersons by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,349,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $124,910,000 after buying an additional 17,278 shares in the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Andersons in the fourth quarter worth about $53,469,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in Andersons by 35.1% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 860,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $61,768,000 after buying an additional 223,600 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Andersons by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 822,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,757,000 after buying an additional 3,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Andersons by 354.7% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 731,019 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,868,000 after buying an additional 570,245 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

Andersons Company Profile

The Andersons, Inc operates as a diversified agriculture company offering a broad range of products and services to farmers, retailers and industrial customers. Through its Grain Group, the company purchases, stores, merchandises and transports corn, soybeans and other commodities, while its Renewables Group produces ethanol and distillers grains at multiple plants in the U.S. The Rail Group provides locomotive leasing, railcar repair and related maintenance services, and the Horticulture Group supplies turf, specialty and horticultural products to landscaping professionals and consumer lawn and garden retailers.

Founded in 1947 and headquartered in Maumee, Ohio, The Andersons has grown from a regional grain elevator operator into an integrated agribusiness platform.