Lazard Asset Management LLC Sells 157,815 Shares of Ingevity Co. (NYSE:NGVT)

Lazard Asset Management LLC lessened its position in Ingevity Co. (NYSE:NGVT) by 54.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 133,468 shares of the company’s stock after selling 157,815 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ingevity were worth $6,366,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ingevity by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,818,520 shares of the company’s stock worth $182,143,000 after acquiring an additional 75,198 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Ingevity by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,148,379 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,446,000 after purchasing an additional 80,856 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ingevity by 57.6% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,854,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,572,000 after buying an additional 677,718 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Ingevity by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 793,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,490,000 after buying an additional 52,187 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Ingevity by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 483,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,853,000 after buying an additional 44,910 shares during the last quarter. 91.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on NGVT shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Ingevity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $52.00 to $62.00 in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Ingevity from $55.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Ingevity from $50.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ingevity from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Loop Capital upped their price objective on Ingevity from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $54.17.

Ingevity Stock Performance

Shares of NGVT stock opened at $46.16 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.68 billion, a PE ratio of -14.86 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $45.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.38. Ingevity Co. has a 52 week low of $36.66 and a 52 week high of $64.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.48.

Ingevity (NYSE:NGVT) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $340.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $319.15 million. Ingevity had a negative net margin of 6.84% and a positive return on equity of 18.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ingevity Co. will post 3.63 earnings per share for the current year.

About Ingevity

Ingevity Corporation manufactures and sells activated carbon products, derivative specialty chemicals, and engineered polymers in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. It operates through three segments: Performance Materials, Performance Chemicals, and Advanced Polymer Technologies.