Stephens Reaffirms “Overweight” Rating for Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE)

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Stephens in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $55.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock. Stephens’ price objective points to a potential upside of 7.70% from the company’s previous close.

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Andersons from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th.

Andersons Trading Up 25.3 %

Shares of ANDE stock opened at $51.07 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $41.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.98 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a PE ratio of 14.58 and a beta of 0.58. Andersons has a 1-year low of $39.25 and a 1-year high of $61.46.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $3.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. Andersons had a return on equity of 8.21% and a net margin of 1.06%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Andersons will post 2.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Andersons news, insider Joseph E. Mcneely sold 2,382 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.73, for a total transaction of $113,692.86. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,601 shares in the company, valued at $2,367,455.73. This represents a 4.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANDE. Peoples Bank KS boosted its holdings in Andersons by 250.0% in the fourth quarter. Peoples Bank KS now owns 700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Andersons by 70.3% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,558 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 643 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in Andersons in the third quarter valued at about $98,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Andersons by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,866 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Andersons during the 4th quarter worth approximately $189,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

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.