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

Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the five analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $152.60.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 price objective (down previously from $165.00) on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Stephens lowered their target price on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th.

Ingredion Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $122.75 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $130.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.21. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $109.51 and a 52 week high of $155.44. The company has a market cap of $7.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The company had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.61%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ingredion by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,002,222,000 after acquiring an additional 84,863 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 valued at $334,862,000 after purchasing an additional 19,560 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after purchasing an additional 268,389 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,182,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,703,000 after buying an additional 14,741 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Ingredion by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 870,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,721,000 after buying an additional 46,819 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Company 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.