Stephens Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE)

Stephens reissued their overweight rating on shares of Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) in a report issued on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stephens currently has a $60.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Andersons from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

Andersons Stock Down 1.0 %

ANDE stock opened at $40.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.46 and a beta of 0.57. Andersons has a fifty-two week low of $39.25 and a fifty-two week high of $61.46. The business has a 50-day moving average of $45.27 and a 200-day moving average of $47.93.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.37. Andersons had a return on equity of 8.21% and a net margin of 1.06%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 27.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Andersons will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Andersons Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.195 per share. This is a positive change from Andersons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Andersons’s payout ratio is 22.29%.

Insider Transactions at Andersons

In other Andersons news, insider Joseph E. Mcneely sold 2,382 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.73, for a total value of $113,692.86. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,601 shares in the company, valued at $2,367,455.73. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Andersons

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ANDE. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Andersons in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in Andersons in the 3rd quarter valued at about $98,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Andersons by 92.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,087 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the second quarter worth approximately $202,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Andersons in the second quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc operates in trade, renewables, and nutrient and industrial sectors in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Switzerland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Trade, Renewables, and Nutrient & Industrial. The company’s Trade segment operates grain elevators; stores commodities; and provides grain marketing, risk management, and origination services, as well as sells commodities, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, ethanol, and corn oil.