Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.67 EPS

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday. The basic materials company reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.67, Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. Andersons had a return on equity of 10.68% and a net margin of 1.17%.Andersons’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.24 EPS.

Andersons Stock Down 1.3%

ANDE stock opened at $69.86 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $72.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.93. Andersons has a 52 week low of $31.84 and a 52 week high of $82.11. The company has a market cap of $2.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.58 and a beta of 0.65.

Andersons Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 1st were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.28%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ANDE. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on Andersons in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Andersons from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Andersons from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Monday, June 15th. One investment 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $85.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. The trade was a 4.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 4.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Andersons

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Andersons by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,349,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $124,910,000 after buying an additional 17,278 shares during the period. Rubric Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Andersons in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $53,469,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Andersons by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 822,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,757,000 after buying an additional 3,259 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Andersons by 354.7% during 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 buying an additional 570,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ophir Asset Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in Andersons during the fourth quarter worth approximately $38,746,000. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.