Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Director Sells $647,125.00 in Stock

The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) Director John Stout, Jr. sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.77, for a total transaction of $647,125.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 33,441 shares in the company, valued at $1,731,240.57. This trade represents a 27.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Andersons Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of NASDAQ ANDE opened at $53.99 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.23 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.53. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The Andersons, Inc. has a 12-month low of $31.03 and a 12-month high of $54.38.

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

Andersons Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. This is a boost from Andersons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Andersons

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Andersons by 2.9% in the first 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 boosted its holdings in shares of Andersons by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,722,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,287,000 after acquiring an additional 176,972 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Andersons by 6.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 48,596 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Andersons by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 799,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,400,000 after purchasing an additional 4,495 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Andersons by 12.5% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 615,797 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,436,000 after purchasing an additional 68,498 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ANDE shares. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Andersons from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $58.33.

Andersons Company Profile

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.