Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Price Target Raised to $50.00

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) had its price objective raised by BMO Capital Markets from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Andersons in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.33.

Andersons Trading Up 2.9%

ANDE opened at $50.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44 and a beta of 0.76. Andersons has a one year low of $31.03 and a one year high of $51.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.01. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.94.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.38. Andersons had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 0.70%.The company had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Andersons will post 3.11 EPS for the current year.

Andersons Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st were issued a $0.195 dividend. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 1st. Andersons’s payout ratio is currently 36.45%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Andersons

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 2.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,113,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $176,579,000 after purchasing an additional 115,948 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Andersons by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,722,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,287,000 after buying an additional 176,972 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Andersons by 6.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 800,220 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,353,000 after buying an additional 48,596 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Andersons by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 799,891 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,400,000 after buying an additional 4,495 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Andersons by 12.5% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 615,797 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $26,436,000 after acquiring an additional 68,498 shares in the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc operates in trade, renewables, and nutrient and industrial sectors in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, Switzerland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Trade, Renewables, and Nutrient & Industrial. The company’s Trade segment operates grain elevators; stores commodities; and provides grain marketing, risk management, and origination services, as well as sells commodities, such as corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, ethanol, and corn oil.