William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $1.70 Million Stock Holdings in Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE)

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) by 90.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 178,791 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 1,684,484 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Green Plains were worth $1,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Green Plains by 2.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,910,245 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $52,945,000 after acquiring an additional 111,501 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Green Plains by 21.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,401,476 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $13,286,000 after purchasing an additional 250,738 shares in the last quarter. Kailix Advisors LLC increased its stake in Green Plains by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. Kailix Advisors LLC now owns 1,316,894 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $12,484,000 after purchasing an additional 174,519 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Green Plains by 1,122.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 704,125 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $6,675,000 after buying an additional 646,507 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Green Plains by 29.5% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 556,095 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $7,530,000 after buying an additional 126,795 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on GPRE. Stephens raised shares of Green Plains to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $12.00 price objective (down from $18.00) on shares of Green Plains in a report on Thursday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Green Plains from $13.00 to $8.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. UBS Group downgraded Green Plains from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $20.50 to $7.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Green Plains from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $6.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.89.

Green Plains Stock Performance

Shares of GPRE opened at $5.28 on Thursday. Green Plains Inc. has a 1 year low of $4.78 and a 1 year high of $24.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $7.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $10.09. The firm has a market cap of $341.77 million, a PE ratio of -3.88 and a beta of 1.55.

Green Plains (NASDAQ:GPRE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 7th. The specialty chemicals company reported ($0.86) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by ($0.64). Green Plains had a negative net margin of 3.36% and a negative return on equity of 11.88%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.13 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Green Plains Inc. will post -0.5 EPS for the current year.

Green Plains Profile

Green Plains Inc produces low-carbon fuels in the United States and internationally. It operates through three segments: Ethanol Production, Agribusiness and Energy Services, and Partnership. The Ethanol Production segment produces ethanol, distillers grains, and ultra-high protein and renewable corn oil.