StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion (NYSE:INGR – Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.
INGR has been the topic of several other research reports. Barclays increased their target price on Ingredion from $115.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Stephens reaffirmed an overweight rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of Ingredion in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Ingredion from a neutral rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the company from $122.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $126.67.
Ingredion Trading Down 1.3 %
Shares of NYSE INGR traded down $1.57 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $115.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 386,921 shares, compared to its average volume of 395,461. The company has a current ratio of 1.92, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The business’s 50 day moving average is $112.02 and its two-hundred day moving average is $104.68. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $89.54 and a 12-month high of $118.83. The firm has a market cap of $7.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.81.
Ingredion (NYSE:INGR – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.10. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.57% and a net margin of 7.88%. The company had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ingredion will post 9.6 EPS for the current year.
Ingredion Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, April 1st will be issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 28th. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 32.50%.
Insider Transactions at Ingredion
In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.08, for a total transaction of $272,624.52. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,966 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,333,407.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.08, for a total transaction of $272,624.52. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 28,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,333,407.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Davida Marie Gable sold 1,968 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.38, for a total transaction of $231,003.84. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 1,723 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,245.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,920 shares of company stock worth $6,902,922 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.56% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Trading of Ingredion
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth $82,272,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ingredion by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,773,126 shares of the company’s stock valued at $843,617,000 after acquiring an additional 427,496 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Ingredion by 4,100.0% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 340,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,704,000 after acquiring an additional 332,719 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Ingredion by 73.0% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 752,456 shares of the company’s stock valued at $74,019,000 after acquiring an additional 317,509 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virginia Retirement Systems ET AL acquired a new position in Ingredion in the second quarter valued at $27,801,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.80% of the company’s stock.
About Ingredion
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.