This week I'm seeking a prestigious and long-term dividend-paying stock from the consumer defensive sector. 

The defensive sector includes thirteen industries all related to providing those convenient packaged goods we've just gotta have. Industries like: beverages, brewed, soft, or distilled; confections; discount stores; education & training; farm products; food distribution; grocery stores; household & personal products; packaged goods; pharmaceutical retailers; tobacco.

Today I'm reviewing a small-cap food distribution firm named The Andersons, Inc. It's trading ticker symbol is ANDE. 

The Andersons Inc is predominantly an agricultural products distributor in the United States. It is also engaged in the manufacture of ethanol, fertilizers and rail operations in the United States and internationally.

The company's Grain segment operates grain elevators; stores grains; and provides grain marketing, risk management, and corn origination services to its customers and affiliated ethanol facilities. 

Its Ethanol segment purchases and sells ethanol; and offers facility operations, risk management, and ethanol and corn oil marketing services to the ethanol plants it invests in and operates. 

The company's Rail segment leases, sells, and repairs various types of railcars, locomotives, and barges; provides fleet management services to private railcar owners, and offers metal fabrication services. 

Its Plant Nutrient segment manufactures, distributes, and retails agricultural and related plant nutrients, corncob-based products, and pelleted lime and gypsum products; crop nutrients, crop protection chemicals, and seed products, as well as provides application and agronomic services to commercial and family farmers. This segment also offers warehousing, packaging, and manufacturing services.  

The Andersons, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in Maumee, Ohio.

I use three key data points to gauge the value of any dividend equity or fund like The Andersons, Inc.: 

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, four more keys  will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

But those first three primary keys, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

ANDE Price

Andersons's price per share was $37.90 at yesterday's market close. A year ago its price was $33.95 for a gain of $3.95 per share.  

Assuming Andersons's price will trade in the range of $30 to $44 next year, ANDE's current $37.90 price could repeat its past year upside and grow $3.95 to $41.85 by late-September, 2019. 

ANDE Dividends

Andersons's most recent quarterly dividend was $0.165 declared August 24th and paid October 22nd. That dividend was increased from $0.16 in January. 

At this most recent $0.165 quarterly pay rate, Andersons's annual dividend is calculated at $0.66 yielding 1.74% at yesterday's closing $37.90 price.

Gains For ANDE?

Adding the $0.66 estimated annual dividend to my repeated $3.95 annual upside for Andersons makes a $4.61  potential gross annual per share gain, which is reduced by the costs to trade the shares.  

 A little under $1,000.00 invested today at the $37.90 recent price buys 26 The Andersons, Inc. shares. 

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale costs $0.38 per share

Subtracting that $0.38 brokerage cost from the estimated $4.61 gross gain leaves a net gain of $4.23 X 26 shares 

= $109.98

or about a 11% net gain on a $985.40 investment.

Therefore, The Andersons, Inc., whose trading ticker symbol is ANDE, now shows a possible 11% net gain including a 1.74% dividend yield. 

Four brokers cover this stock:

Two say ANDE is a stock to "buy".

Two say ANDE is a stock to "hold".

Thus, the analyst recommendation number is 2.0 or "outperform".

The price target set by those four brokers is just $0.35 under my repeating annual upside estimate to a $41.85 price target for ANDE. 

So, you could look at all these speculative numbers this way, The Andersons, Inc., whose trading ticker symbol is ANDE, has made money, is making money, and could net a 10% net annual gain including a 1.74% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. Actual results remain to be seen. Those results will determine if The Andersons, Inc. is worth your time and money.