Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from analysts, with an average price target of $151.40.
• The company recently reported earnings of $2.87 per share, exceeding analysts' estimates, but revenue was down 2.4% year-over-year.
• Ingredion has increased its quarterly dividend from $0.80 to $0.82 per share, representing an annual yield of 2.5%.

Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $151.40.

INGR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th.

Ingredion Price Performance

NYSE INGR traded up $0.43 on Friday, hitting $128.26. The stock had a trading volume of 7,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 519,444. Ingredion has a 52-week low of $120.51 and a 52-week high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a current ratio of 2.78. The company has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $131.23 and a 200-day moving average of $132.76.

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

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be paid a $0.82 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $3.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.6%. This is a boost from Ingredion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 36,287 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 50,129 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,342,321.08. This trade represents a 41.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 850 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owned 31,171 shares in the company, valued at $4,002,044.69. This trade represents a 2.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter worth approximately $32,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Ingredion by 810.7% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 255 shares of the company's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. raised 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 worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.