Great Lakes Advisors LLC Purchases New Holdings in The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE

Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 18,205 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,245,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ANDE. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Andersons in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $427,688,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted 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 last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Andersons during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,469,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in shares of Andersons by 35.1% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 860,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $61,768,000 after buying an additional 223,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Andersons by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 822,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $43,757,000 after buying an additional 3,259 shares during the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Andersons Stock Performance

ANDE stock opened at $68.06 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The firm has a market cap of $2.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.14 and a beta of 0.66. The Andersons, Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.69 and a 12-month high of $82.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $70.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.59.

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

Andersons Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 3,534 shares of Andersons stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.53, for a total value of $284,593.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. The trade was a 4.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ANDE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Texas Capital raised shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Andersons in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Andersons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.00.

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.