Pacer Advisors Inc. Sells 1,246,064 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in Ingredion Incorporated by 65.9%, now holding 644,424 shares worth approximately $87.1 million after selling 1.25 million shares.
• Ingredion's recent quarterly earnings showed an EPS of $2.97, surpassing analyst estimates of $2.44, although revenue decreased by 3.7% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.80 per share, reflecting a 2.41% yield and an annualized payout of $3.20.

Pacer Advisors Inc. lessened its holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 65.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 644,424 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,246,064 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned about 1.00% of Ingredion worth $87,133,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 653.3% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 40.2% during the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on INGR. Wall Street Zen raised Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, June 8th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price target on Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $151.40.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 31,996 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,696.72. The trade was a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ingredion Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Ingredion stock traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $132.59. The company had a trading volume of 58,410 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,182. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $136.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.85 and a quick ratio of 1.86. The firm has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $118.85 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.53. Ingredion had a return on equity of 19.75% and a net margin of 8.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.08 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st were paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 1st. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.76%.

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.