NFJ Investment Group LLC Buys Shares of 40,787 The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE

NFJ Investment Group LLC bought a new position in shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 40,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,790,000. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned 0.12% of Andersons as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Optimize Financial Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Andersons by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Optimize Financial Inc now owns 14,657 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $779,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Andersons by 95.2% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Andersons in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of Andersons by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 24,085 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,281,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the period. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Andersons

In other news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director directly owned 74,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. This represents a 4.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Andersons Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of ANDE opened at $67.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.51. The company has a market cap of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $70.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.61. The Andersons, Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.69 and a 52-week high of $82.11.

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

Andersons Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be given a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.44%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ANDE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Andersons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Andersons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $110.00 price target on Andersons in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Texas Capital raised Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.00.

Andersons 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.