Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Makes New $859,000 Investment in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 6,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $859,000.

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

Ingredion Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $134.86 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $131.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.46. The company has a market capitalization of $8.66 billion, a PE ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $109.51 and a 12-month 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.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. Ingredion’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS 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 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 yield of 2.37%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.96%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on INGR shares. Stephens lowered their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of 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 price target on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were 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 owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.