Insider Selling: Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Director Sells $275,000.00 in Stock

The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) Director John Stout, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of Andersons stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $275,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 25,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,426,755. This trade represents a 16.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Andersons Trading Down 1.7%

ANDE opened at $53.90 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.17. The company has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.19 and a beta of 0.79. The Andersons, Inc. has a one year low of $31.03 and a one year high of $56.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.47.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.85 billion. Andersons had a return on equity of 5.83% and a net margin of 0.63%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Andersons, Inc. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Andersons Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. This is a positive change from Andersons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Andersons

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ANDE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Andersons by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,113,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $176,579,000 after purchasing an additional 115,948 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Andersons by 11.5% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,722,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $63,287,000 after buying an additional 176,972 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 800,220 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,353,000 after acquiring an additional 48,596 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Andersons by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 799,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,400,000 after acquiring an additional 4,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Andersons by 12.5% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 615,797 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,436,000 after acquiring an additional 68,498 shares during the period. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Andersons in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Andersons from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.33.

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.