Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Sells 825 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 21.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,964 shares of the company’s stock after selling 825 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $322,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of INGR. West Tower Group LLC purchased a new stake in Ingredion during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Ingredion during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Ingredion by 63.9% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 414.1% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 484 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INGR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Ingredion in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Barclays boosted 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. StockNews.com raised Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Ingredion from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $126.67.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.0 %

Ingredion stock traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $117.34. 144,185 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 407,065. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $113.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $105.64. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $89.54 and a 12 month high of $118.83. The company has a market cap of $7.70 billion, a PE ratio of 12.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.81.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $1.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.07 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.57% and a net margin of 7.88%. The business’s revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st will be issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 28th. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.50%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total transaction of $6,399,076.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,635,601.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total value of $6,399,076.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 99,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,635,601.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.08, for a total value of $272,624.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,966 shares in the company, valued at $3,333,407.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,921 shares of company stock valued at $6,903,037 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.68% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion 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.