KBC Group NV Purchases 789 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 45.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,515 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 789 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,862,000 after purchasing an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Ingredion by 2.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,529,000 after purchasing an additional 36,421 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted 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 worth $160,516,000 after acquiring an additional 19,064 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ingredion by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,683,000 after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the period. Finally, Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $58,642,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $861,120.52. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,083,922.44. This represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 65,692 shares of company stock worth $9,634,868. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on INGR. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR opened at $136.40 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.31, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.75. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $139.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.94. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $107.40 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.35%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

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.