226,468 Shares in The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE Acquired by Man Group plc

Man Group plc bought a new position in The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 226,468 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,490,000. Man Group plc owned approximately 0.67% of Andersons at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of Andersons in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $54,610,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC purchased a new position in Andersons in the 2nd quarter worth $3,452,000. PDT Partners LLC bought a new stake in Andersons in the second quarter worth $7,353,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Andersons in the second quarter worth $417,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Andersons during the second quarter valued at about $5,363,000. 87.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on ANDE. Weiss Ratings raised Andersons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on shares of Andersons in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Texas Capital raised Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. 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 and four have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Andersons currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.53, for a total value of $284,593.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. This represents a 4.51% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 2.3%

Shares of ANDE opened at $63.73 on Friday. The Andersons, Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.69 and a 1-year high of $82.11. 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’s 50-day moving average price is $70.43 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.30 and a beta of 0.66.

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

Andersons Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is 15.44%.

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.