Wall Street Zen Upgrades Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) to Strong-Buy

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on ANDE. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Andersons from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $110.00 price objective on Andersons in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. One equities 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, Andersons has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

Andersons Stock Performance

Andersons stock opened at $64.93 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $67.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $70.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market cap of $2.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.53 and a beta of 0.65. Andersons has a 12 month low of $44.63 and a 12 month high of $82.11.

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

Insider Activity at Andersons

In related news, Director Patrick Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the firm’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 value of $284,593.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,029,683.75. This trade represents a 4.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 4.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Andersons in the 2nd quarter valued at $427,688,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 223,600 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the second quarter worth $54,610,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the second quarter worth $20,628,000. Finally, Man Group plc bought a new stake in shares of Andersons during the second quarter worth $15,490,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc is an agribusiness company that supplies agricultural inputs, manages and markets grain, and produces renewable fuels and related co-products. Its activities support farmers, food and feed manufacturers, fuel producers, and industrial customers, primarily in the United States.

The company operates through businesses focused on trade, renewables, and nutrients and industrial products. Its offerings and services include grain merchandising and storage, commodity marketing, ethanol production, plant nutrients, fertilizers, soil amendments, and specialty agricultural and industrial products.