Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

INGR has been the topic of several other research reports. UBS Group cut their price target on Ingredion from $144.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.20.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.3%

NYSE:INGR opened at $120.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $119.31 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $124.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $131.20.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 9.24%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. Ingredion has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.100-11.600 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.82 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is presently 32.00%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 850 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total transaction of $109,131.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,171 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,002,044.69. The trade was a 2.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 36,287 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.52, for a total value of $4,591,031.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,342,321.08. This trade represents a 41.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,137 shares of company stock worth $4,700,163 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingredion

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of INGR. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter worth about $26,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 810.7% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 255 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 40.2% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Ingredion in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

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.