Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Short Interest Update

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,000,000 shares, a growth of 92.9% from the November 30th total of 518,400 shares. Currently, 1.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 447,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total transaction of $49,558.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at $6,967,399.22. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,198 shares of company stock worth $9,702,461 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ingredion during the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Ingredion in the second quarter worth $36,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Ingredion during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $56,000. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 82.6% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 493 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR traded down $0.34 during trading on Friday, hitting $138.57. 245,661 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 398,953. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $142.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $106.03 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The company has a market cap of $9.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.52, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 10.59 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, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on INGR shares. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.17.

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.