Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $51.58 and last traded at $51.7410, with a volume of 34188 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $50.38.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ANDE. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Andersons in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Andersons from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.33.

Andersons Price Performance

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $42.86 and a 200-day moving average of $38.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.54 and a beta of 0.76.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.38. Andersons had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 0.70%.The firm had revenue of $2.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that The Andersons, Inc. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Andersons Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Trading of Andersons

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ANDE. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its position in shares of Andersons by 262.8% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 273,377 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,047,000 after purchasing an additional 198,029 shares during the last quarter. Walnut Level Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Andersons during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,989,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Andersons by 11.5% in the second 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. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Andersons in the first quarter valued at $5,439,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Andersons by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,113,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $176,579,000 after purchasing an additional 115,948 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.06% of the company’s stock.

Andersons Company Profile

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.