Empowered Funds LLC Purchases New Stake in The Andersons, Inc. $ANDE

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 202,006 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,777,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Andersons during the 2nd quarter valued at $427,688,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Andersons by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,349,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $124,910,000 after acquiring an additional 17,278 shares during the last quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Andersons during the fourth quarter worth $53,469,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Andersons by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 822,812 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $43,757,000 after purchasing an additional 3,259 shares during the last quarter. 87.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ANDE. UBS Group set a $90.00 price target on Andersons in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. BMO Capital Markets raised 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. Texas Capital upgraded shares of Andersons to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Andersons from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have given a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $95.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Patrick E. Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.53, for a total transaction of $284,593.02. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 74,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,029,683.75. This trade represents a 4.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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.

Andersons Stock Up 1.3%

ANDE stock opened at $64.56 on Friday. The Andersons, Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.69 and a twelve month high of $82.11. The company has a market cap of $2.20 billion, a PE ratio of 12.46 and a beta of 0.66. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

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

Andersons Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 1st. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Andersons’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.44%.

Andersons Company 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.