Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the five brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $152.20.

Several research analysts have weighed in on INGR shares. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $155.00 target price on Ingredion in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Ingredion Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $132.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.63, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73. Ingredion has a 1 year low of $111.54 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $131.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.53.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The company had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.42%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,109,000 after buying an additional 83,708 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in Ingredion by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 583,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,209,000 after acquiring an additional 10,703 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Ingredion by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,683,000 after acquiring an additional 10,812 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC boosted its position in Ingredion by 606.2% during the 4th quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 38,023 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,230,000 after acquiring an additional 32,639 shares during the period. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $344,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ingredion Company Profile

Ingredion Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells sweeteners, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from wet milling and processing corn, and other starch-based materials to a range of industries in North America, South America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.