Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the five analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $152.20.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on INGR. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Stephens decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group set a $155.00 price objective on Ingredion in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Ingredion Stock Down 1.8%

NYSE INGR opened at $138.43 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $132.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Ingredion has a fifty-two week low of $111.54 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.90 billion, a PE ratio of 14.26, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.08 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 31,996 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Ingredion by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 583,081 shares of the company's stock valued at $80,209,000 after acquiring an additional 10,703 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 606.2% during the 4th quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 38,023 shares of the company's stock worth $5,230,000 after purchasing an additional 32,639 shares in the last quarter. Fractal Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter worth about $344,000. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter worth about $963,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 93.2% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 652,734 shares of the company's stock worth $89,790,000 after purchasing an additional 314,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

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.

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