Perpetual Ltd Sells 47,227 Shares of Green Plains, Inc. $GPRE

Perpetual Ltd lowered its position in Green Plains, Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,786,055 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 47,227 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Green Plains were worth $26,898,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GPRE. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Green Plains in the second quarter valued at approximately $156,703,000. Thomist Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Green Plains during the second quarter valued at approximately $19,542,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Green Plains during the second quarter valued at approximately $14,546,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Green Plains by 155.5% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,114,743 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $18,338,000 after purchasing an additional 678,515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Green Plains in the first quarter worth approximately $4,596,000.

Green Plains Trading Up 1.8%

NASDAQ GPRE opened at $14.60 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.18 and a beta of 1.15. Green Plains, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.18 and a fifty-two week high of $19.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $446.22 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $542.38 million. Green Plains had a return on equity of 14.52% and a net margin of 6.78%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.09) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Green Plains, Inc. will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on GPRE. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Green Plains from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Green Plains in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Green Plains in a report on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research raised shares of Green Plains from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Green Plains from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $15.67.

About Green Plains

Green Plains Inc is a biorefining company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 2006, the company develops and operates renewable-fuel and ingredient production facilities that process corn into ethanol and other value-added products.

Its principal products include low-carbon renewable ethanol, renewable corn oil, distillers grains and other feed ingredients used in livestock and aquaculture markets. Green Plains has also developed higher-protein feed products and technologies designed to improve the efficiency and environmental performance of its biorefineries.

The company operates facilities primarily in the U.S.