Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $155.17.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on INGR. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group raised their target price on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Ingredion Stock Up 1.0 %

INGR opened at $136.79 on Friday. Ingredion has a fifty-two week low of $107.20 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The business has a 50-day moving average of $140.51 and a 200-day moving average of $134.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The company has a market capitalization of $8.91 billion, a PE ratio of 13.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.75.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total value of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. The trade was a 13.93 % 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. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 65,692 shares of company stock valued at $9,634,868. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 2.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,529,000 after buying an additional 36,421 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,516,000 after buying an additional 19,064 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 1.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after buying an additional 10,812 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.