In Vermont, the general store is as common as muddy back roads.
These local hangouts are commonly the closest available option for
bread, milk, and coffee - as well as any fresh produce that may
have been grown by local farmers.
They are sort of a potpourri of variety - selling everything
from food to Frisbees, and even a few bags of cat food too. If I
could buy stock in them I would - because they always have
customers and are always open when I need something.
Perhaps it was my fondness for the venerable general store that
led me to the subject of today's letter. This company has roots in
the agricultural industry but the family-run, publicly traded
company operates more like a country store. And it has handsomely
rewarded investors with solid earnings and a decent dividend that
has more than doubled over the past five years.
The Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE)
is a company that competes in five agriculture-related arenas. The
stock rose 45 percent in 2010, but I believe that there is still
some room for it to climb past its October high of $42.44.
***Since the Toledo, Ohio-area company began with a single grain
elevator six decades ago, The Andersons has expanded far beyond
grain. The company now separates it operations into grain and
ethanol, plant nutrient (fertilizer), rail, turf and specialty, and
retail (a handful of stores in Ohio). Yet grain remains at the
heart of its operations, which are located in 16 states and Puerto
Rico. It also has rail-leasing interests in Canada and Mexico.
The weakest link is its rail operations, which encompasses
24,000 railcars nationwide and two repair facilities. However, the
rail business felt the impact of reduced demand for grain hauling
from farm to market in 2009. Retail also has faced intense
competition, and the company closed one of its stores in
recession-weary Ohio in 2009.
The company traded some 385 million bushels of grain in 2009,
and it can produce nearly 300 million gallons of ethanol annually
-- an established business that has weathered volatile demand for
this vital gasoline additive. But even that doesn't really cover
the diversified portfolio of businesses that The Andersons has.
It's difficult to compare The Andersons with other stocks,
simply because it is a small-cap conglomerate. But it's interesting
to note that the company is outperforming
Tyson Foods (
TSN
),
Smithfield
Foods (
SFD
)
, and
Ralcorp Holdings (
RAH
)
. Broad-based agri-conglomerates such as
Con-Agra (
CAG
)
and
Archer Daniels Midland (
ADM
)
were actually down slightly in 2010.
The Andersons is a dependable dividend payer, currently yielding
around 1.3 percent, and it stayed profitable during the recession.
It took its licks, to be sure, but still it surpassed $3 billion in
revenue for 2009.
The stock has more than tripled in value since its 2009 low.
Pre-recession in 2006, The Andersons was trading in the mid-$50s.
While it's unlikely to hit that plateau anytime soon, a return to
its 12-month high is a reasonable expectation as the economy
recovers.
***For the third quarter, The Andersons missed estimates on
earnings per share by posting $0.08, but beat expectations with
revenue of $707 million. Still, that led to a November pullback in
share price from around $40 to the $33 range. The stock is trading
at 11 times expected 2011 earnings per share of $3.37 and has a
trailing P/E of 12.5 - a discount to many competitors.
When The Andersons report full-year results in February,
analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect revenue to rise 9
percent to $3.3 billion, while EPS could jump 43 percent to
$2.98.
I love dividend-paying stocks, and with the quarterly increase
the annual yield for The Andersons is up to 1.3 percent.
In fact, I've prepared a special report on dividend-paying
stocks, explaining why they should be part of every investor's
portfolio.
You can find this special report here.