Wall Street Zen Downgrades Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) to Buy

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

ANDE has been the topic of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Andersons from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $110.00 target price on shares of Andersons in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. UBS Group set a $90.00 target price on Andersons in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Andersons to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Andersons from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $95.00.

Andersons Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ANDE opened at $70.97 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.70 and a beta of 0.63. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $70.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $70.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.51. Andersons has a 52 week low of $37.69 and a 52 week high of $82.11.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The basic materials company reported $2.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.67. The firm had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.28 billion. Andersons had a net margin of 1.62% and a return on equity of 16.23%. The company’s revenue 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.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Patrick Bowe sold 3,534 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 74,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,029,683.75. This trade represents a 4.51% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 4.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ANDE. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Andersons during the second quarter valued at about $242,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in shares of Andersons in the second quarter worth about $496,000. Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of Andersons in the second quarter worth about $135,000. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 33,055 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,261,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 5,655.0% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,513,084 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $171,895,000 after purchasing an additional 2,469,416 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

About Andersons

The Andersons, Inc is an agriculture-focused company headquartered in Maumee, Ohio. Founded in 1947, the company serves farmers, manufacturers, food and feed producers, and other customers through businesses connected to grain, plant nutrients, and renewable fuels.

The company’s activities include merchandising and storing grains, supplying agricultural fertilizers and related plant-nutrient products, and producing and marketing ethanol and other renewable fuel products. Its operations also support the movement and processing of agricultural commodities through grain terminals, elevators, and logistics services.

The Andersons serves customers primarily across the United States, with operations and commercial relationships extending into Canada and other markets.