Legal & General Group Plc Invests $5.36 Million in The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 78,408 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,363,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANDE. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Andersons by 5.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 40,727 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,748,000 after purchasing an additional 2,137 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 19,425 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $834,000 after buying an additional 866 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in shares of Andersons in the 2nd quarter valued at about $257,000. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at about $201,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,036,000. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ANDE. Texas Capital raised shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Andersons from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Andersons to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $110.00 target price on Andersons in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

Andersons Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ANDE opened at $69.49 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $70.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.42 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The Andersons, Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.69 and a 52 week high of $82.11.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.67. Andersons had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 1.62%.The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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 Thursday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be paid a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Patrick Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.53, for a total transaction of $284,593.02. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. This trade represents a 4.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

About Andersons

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.