The Andersons' Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know (ADM, ANDE, OTTR)

The Andersons' Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of mini-conglomerate The Andersons (Nasdaq: ANDE ) jumped as much as 10.1% over the weekend on heavy trading volume.

So what: The U.S. Agriculture Department just changed its methodology for setting insurance rates on corn and soy crops, which will help The Andersons' grain-marketing operations in 2012. This is the same piece of news that lifted stodgy Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM ) to a 4% weekend jump.

Now what: The Andersons doesn't live and die by grain sales alone, of course. Like Otter Tail (Nasdaq: OTTR ) , this small cap has expanded into a surprising range of loosely related industries such as railcar rentals, crop nutrients, and a chain of specialty food stores. However, fellow Fool Jacob Roche looks at this diversified business model and sees the company riding sector effects more than executing on a solid plan. Jacob doesn't like that at all. Moreover, Otter Tail's utility services power a much fatter dividend payout than The Andersons' corn crops do. If you're choosing between these two micro-conglomerates, I think the scales tip pretty clearly in Otter Tail's favor.

Interested in more info about The Andersons? Add it to My Watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies mentioned. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Otter Tail. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinion, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Check out Anders' holdings and bio, or follow him on Twitter and Google+. We have a disclosure policy.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.