Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

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

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on ANDE. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Andersons from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.33.

Andersons Trading Up 1.2%

ANDE stock opened at $65.65 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.45 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $59.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $49.53. Andersons has a one year low of $31.03 and a one year high of $70.06.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The basic materials company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.48. Andersons had a net margin of 0.87% and a return on equity of 7.76%. The firm had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 18.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Andersons will post 3.11 EPS for the current year.

Andersons Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Andersons’s payout ratio is 28.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Andersons news, Director John T. Stout, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total transaction of $275,000.00. Following the sale, the director owned 25,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,426,755. The trade was a 16.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 4.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Andersons

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised 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 valued at $124,910,000 after purchasing an additional 17,278 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Andersons by 11.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 176,972 shares during the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Andersons during the fourth quarter worth $53,469,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $38,868,000 after purchasing an additional 570,245 shares during the period. 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.