Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09, Zacks reports. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $134.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $139.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.94. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $107.40 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market capitalization of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of 13.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,083,922.44. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,877,794.20. This represents a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 65,692 shares of company stock valued at $9,634,868 in the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Oppenheimer raised 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. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $155.17.

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.