Legal & General Group Plc Buys New Shares in The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE

Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 78,408 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,363,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.23% of Andersons as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ANDE. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in Andersons in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Andersons during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Andersons by 33,600.0% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,011 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 1,008 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Andersons by 95.2% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming acquired a new position in Andersons during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $70,000. 87.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Andersons Stock Performance

Andersons stock opened at $69.49 on Friday. The Andersons, Inc. has a 12-month low of $37.69 and a 12-month high of $82.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.42 and a beta of 0.63. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $70.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.60.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last announced its 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. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.28 billion. Andersons had a return on equity of 16.23% and a net margin of 1.62%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.24 earnings per share.

Andersons Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 22nd. Shareholders 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 of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.44%.

Insider Activity at Andersons

In other 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 transaction of $284,593.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. This trade represents a 4.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Texas Capital raised shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Andersons from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on Andersons in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen raised Andersons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock 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.