Foster & Motley Inc. Trims Stake in The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE)

Foster & Motley Inc. cut its holdings in shares of The Andersons, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANDE) by 4.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 11,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 598 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Andersons were worth $469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Andersons by 23.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 652,579 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,720,000 after acquiring an additional 124,468 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in Andersons in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,744,000. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in Andersons in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,798,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Andersons by 86.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 101,099 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,110,000 after purchasing an additional 46,903 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Andersons in the second quarter valued at $2,311,000. 87.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on ANDE. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Andersons in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Andersons from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Andersons news, insider Joseph E. Mcneely sold 2,382 shares of Andersons 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,367,455.73. The trade was a 4.58 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Andersons Trading Down 2.2 %

ANDE opened at $40.75 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $43.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.05. 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 Andersons, Inc. has a 12 month low of $39.25 and a 12 month high of $61.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.64 and a beta of 0.59.

Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.37. Andersons had a net margin of 1.06% and a return on equity of 8.21%. The firm had revenue of $2.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.90 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 27.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that The Andersons, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Andersons Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.195 per share. This is a boost from Andersons’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Andersons’s payout ratio is 22.29%.

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.