Metis Global Partners LLC Buys 136 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,989 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 136 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $549,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,642,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 3rd quarter worth $17,094,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,930,000 after purchasing an additional 89,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,109,000 after purchasing an additional 83,708 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INGR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stephens reduced their target price on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR stock opened at $129.22 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1 year low of $109.51 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $132.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.56.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.48%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.96%.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.