Can Andersons Live Up to the Ethanol Promise?

You can't say that ethanol hasn't made money for some investors. If you owned shares of obscure grain, rail, and ethanol player Andersons (NASDAQ:ANDE) a year or two ago, I'm sure you're enjoying your gains quite happily. Of course, the question still remains how much propulsion Andersons can get from the ethanol story.

Of course, it isn't all about ethanol at Andersons. There's a much larger business around that ethanol story, and that business saw revenue rise 8.5% and earnings nearly quadruple. Too bad there wasn't a cash flow statement included as well.

For three of the business units, there was revenue growth this quarter. The grain/ethanol, plant nutrient, and railcar businesses all saw top-line growth, with grain/ethanol and railcar doing the best. That said, only the railcar and turf/specialty businesses saw meaningful growth in operating income.

Even though there's plenty of excitement about ethanol today, this is a business that seems to me to be designed more along the lines of producing steadily better returns over the long haul. For instance, you won't make huge windfall profits in grain storage, but it's a good business (even despite competition from companies such as Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE:ADM) and Bunge (NYSE:BG)). Likewise in the railcar unit. Times are good now as rail operators like Canadian National (NYSE:CNI) want more cars to ship grain, but it's a cyclical business that has to be analyzed over the long haul.

So what about the ethanol business? The company is building two facilities that should add about 165 million gallons of production capacity by year's end. What's more, the company has structured the financing and operations of the ethanol business in such a way that investors will share in the upside, but the downside (for the company and its owners) is more limited. I also like the fact that Andersons is looking a little more at the Eastern Corn Belt, whereas a lot of the recent excitement has been in the West.

I'm not a big fan of relative valuation, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Andersons doesn't seem all that expensive relative to other ethanol plays like ADM or Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ:PEIX). And while the smarter money certainly benefited from getting here ahead of the ethanol craze, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that this one could still go higher.

For more Foolishness on ethanol:

• Can Ethanol Hype Fuel AGCO?
• It's Sweeteners, It's Ethanol, It's ADM
• ADP Pumps Up Ethanol

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).