Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Price Target Raised to $173.00

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) had its price target boosted by UBS Group from $165.00 to $173.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Down 5.6 %

INGR opened at $140.83 on Friday. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $100.90 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $137.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $126.61. The stock has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.74, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ingredion will post 10.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. This is a boost from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $3,024,857.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. This trade represents a 30.03 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total transaction of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. This trade represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 30,056 shares of company stock valued at $4,121,736. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Ingredion by 4.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,009,000 after purchasing an additional 125,543 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Ingredion by 92.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,332,000 after buying an additional 846,967 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Ingredion by 2.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,529,000 after buying an additional 36,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ingredion by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,516,000 after acquiring an additional 19,064 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.