Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Rating Increased to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Sunday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ingredion in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Ingredion from $144.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $147.20.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $121.46 on Friday. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $118.56 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The company has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $124.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $130.78.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.09. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.24% and a return on equity of 19.04%. The company had revenue of $1.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Ingredion has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.100-11.600 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.00%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 850 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total value of $109,131.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 31,171 shares in the company, valued at $4,002,044.69. This represents a 2.65% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 36,287 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.52, for a total value of $4,591,031.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,129 shares in the company, valued at $6,342,321.08. This represents a 41.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,137 shares of company stock worth $4,700,163 in the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ingredion

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 810.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 40.2% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

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.