Analysts Set The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) Target Price at $85.00

Shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) have received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $85.00.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Andersons from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Texas Capital raised shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. UBS Group set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Andersons in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a research report on Monday, June 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Andersons news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 16,466 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.76, for a total transaction of $1,329,794.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 78,409 shares in the company, valued at $6,332,310.84. This represents a 17.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 66,466 shares of company stock worth $5,153,667 in the last ninety days. 4.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Andersons

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new stake in Andersons during the first quarter worth $585,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Andersons by 56.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 96,403 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,920,000 after buying an additional 34,619 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in Andersons by 35.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 860,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $61,768,000 after acquiring an additional 223,600 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Andersons by 34.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 32,390 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,325,000 after acquiring an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in Andersons by 38.0% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 43,668 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,134,000 after acquiring an additional 12,015 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

Andersons Price Performance

Andersons stock opened at $68.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $2.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.29 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Andersons has a 1 year low of $31.84 and a 1 year high of $82.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $72.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.58.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.70 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $2.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.71 billion. Andersons had a net margin of 1.17% and a return on equity of 10.68%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.12 EPS.

Andersons Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.28%.

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.