Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on ANDE. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Andersons to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Monday, June 15th. Texas Capital upgraded shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on Andersons in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.00.

Andersons Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of ANDE stock opened at $65.49 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $71.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.29. Andersons has a fifty-two week low of $37.63 and a fifty-two week high of $82.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.64 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.67. Andersons had a net margin of 1.62% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.24 earnings per share. Andersons’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Andersons Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 1st. Andersons’s payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

Insider Transactions at Andersons

In other Andersons news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.53, for a total transaction of $284,593.02. Following the sale, the director directly owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,029,683.75. The trade was a 4.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 4.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ANDE. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Andersons during the second quarter valued at $1,245,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Andersons during the 2nd quarter worth about $427,688,000. Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new position in Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,379,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at about $20,628,000. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in shares of Andersons in the 2nd quarter valued at about $220,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.06% 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.