Geode Capital Management LLC Buys 14,741 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,182,434 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,741 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $162,703,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 653.3% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ingredion by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on INGR. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Stephens reduced their target price on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR opened at $130.69 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.71. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $109.51 and a 12 month high of $155.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.47.

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

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.96%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Ingredion Profile

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.