Andersons Inc (NASDAQ:ANDE) has signed an agreement to sell eight of its grain and plant nutrient assets to MaxYield Cooperative of Iowa. Andersons CEO Pat Bowe noted that they had referenced their performance issue in the Western grain assets during several investor calls and anticipated that this sale will improve their prospects and provide a pathway to profitability for this area of business. He further noted that they believe MaxYield is capable of continuing to serve the needs of growers in Iowa and make use of the assets in that region.

Click Here For More Market Exclusive Updates & Analysis

MaxYield Cooperative is a member-owned cooperative. It has 17 locations in three Cenex convenience stores in Iowa. It provides grain origination and accounting services for two feed mills in the State.

Anderson acquired the eight agronomy and grain locations as part of its 2012 acquisition of Green Plains Grain Company. Tennessee assets that were acquired during that period will remain part of Andersons.

The current deal does not involve the Company’s ethanol facility or the Nutra-Flo facilities in Iowa.

Howard Haas, MaxYield Cooperative board chair, expressed his excitement at the expansion of their presence in an area that is already served by the company. MaxYield currently has 17 facilities in 17 rural communities. It has 1,700 members with a majority getting increased access to grain agricultural inputs and services as a result of this transaction.

In other news, the company recently announced their second quarter 2016 cash dividend of 15.5 cents per share. The dividend was Anderson’s 78th consecutive quarterly cash dividend since it was listed on the Nasdaq on February 20, 1996. As of now, there are about 28.1 million common shares outstanding.

Before the dividend announcement, the company had earlier announced financial results for the forth-quarter and full-year that ended on December 31, 2015. The company reported net income of $41.4 million or $1.45 per diluted share.