Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $138.83.

INGR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $138.00 to $147.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total value of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,040,595.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total value of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,040,595.90. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total value of $49,558.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,967,399.22. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,356 shares of company stock worth $3,400,709 over the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Ingredion during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Ingredion by 102.6% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Ingredion in the second quarter worth $33,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in Ingredion during the second quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the second quarter worth $36,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ingredion Price Performance

Ingredion stock opened at $133.77 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $134.74 and its two-hundred day moving average is $124.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.52 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $93.26 and a 12-month high of $138.37.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.34. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.47% and a return on equity of 17.18%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.32 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a $0.80 dividend. This is an increase from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.72%.

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.