AQR Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated $INGR

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ingredion Incorporated by 38.1% in the 1st quarter, owning approximately 0.68% of the company valued at $59 million.
• Ingredion reported a net margin of 9.24% and earnings per share of $2.87, exceeding analysts' estimates, while its revenue declined 2.4% year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.82 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 2.6%.

AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 38.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 436,868 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 120,524 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 0.68% of Ingredion worth $59,069,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 474.2% in the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 11,501 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,555,000 after acquiring an additional 9,498 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 1st quarter valued at $646,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Ingredion by 38.2% during the first quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 342,190 shares of the company's stock worth $46,268,000 after buying an additional 94,575 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Ingredion by 8.4% during the first quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,318 shares of the company's stock worth $313,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ingredion by 156.7% during the first quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,086 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,499,000 after acquiring an additional 6,768 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, September 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $151.40.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of INGR traded down $0.63 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $126.25. The stock had a trading volume of 330,125 shares, compared to its average volume of 412,883. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $120.51 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $129.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $132.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 1.81.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 9.24%.The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.87 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. Ingredion has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.100-11.600 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. This is an increase from Ingredion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 36,287 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.52, for a total transaction of $4,591,031.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 50,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,342,321.08. The trade was a 41.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total transaction of $109,131.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 31,171 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,002,044.69. The trade was a 2.65% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 37,137 shares of company stock valued at $4,700,163. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.