Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Shares Sold by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 17.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,304 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,489 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $2,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Ingredion by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 163,575 shares of the company’s stock worth $22,501,000 after buying an additional 6,845 shares during the period. Retirement Guys Formula LLC acquired a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth approximately $204,000. TFB Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth approximately $477,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in Ingredion by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 18,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,490,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in Ingredion by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 776 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ingredion Price Performance

Ingredion stock opened at $126.70 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $135.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $136.48. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1 year low of $109.51 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on INGR. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Stephens dropped their price objective 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. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.20.

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.