Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Shares Purchased by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 13,319 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 748 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $1,832,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 195.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 19,560 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,109,000 after acquiring an additional 83,708 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after acquiring an additional 10,812 shares during the period. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $344,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer cut 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. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group raised their price target 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $158.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR opened at $130.55 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.44, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $109.51 and a 52-week high of $155.44. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $132.87 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $136.59.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The company’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 32.96%.

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.