FourThought Financial Partners LLC Buys New Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 1,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ingredion in the third quarter valued at $41,000. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Ingredion by 431.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 3rd quarter worth about $86,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on INGR. Stephens lowered their target price on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price 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. Barclays increased their price target on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:INGR opened at $130.59 on Thursday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $109.51 and a 12 month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.61.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. Analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares in the company, 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 65,685 shares of company stock worth $9,414,112. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.