UPDATE: Stifel Initiates Coverage on The Andersons

In a report published Friday, Stifel analyst Paul Massoud initiated coverage on

at Hold. According to the report, while it is believed that ANDE is entering into a favorable operating environment in 2014, much of the upside is already valued in the stock (up 107.9% in 2013 vs. the S&P 500 which was up 29.6%). “We expect a large crop output from the 2013/2014 U.S. planting season to improve revenue and margins in ANDE's grain handling business,” the report noted. “The USDA estimates U.S. corn production of 14.0 billion bushels, up 29.8% y/y, and soybean production of 3.3 billion bushels, up 7.4% y/y. As a result of the large harvest, we estimate 2014 revenue from ANDE's Grain segment will increase 5.0% y/y to $3.7 billion and EBT margin will improve from 1.6% in 2013 to 3.0% in 2014.” The report further asserted that ANDE shares currently trade at 9.6x their 2013 EBITDA estimate versus a normalized range of 6.1x-10.2x for Street consensus current year estimates (one standard deviation from the mean of 8.1x). ANDE closed Thursday at $87.67.