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

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

Several analysts have weighed in on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stephens lowered their price objective on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, UBS Group set a $155.00 target price on Ingredion in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total value of $325,968.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 31,996 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ingredion

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Norges Bank bought a new position in Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $96,012,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 38,341.7% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 509,352 shares of the company's stock worth $70,067,000 after acquiring an additional 508,027 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 327.2% in the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 531,413 shares of the company's stock worth $73,101,000 after acquiring an additional 407,027 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 42.9% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,204,347 shares of the company's stock worth $162,840,000 after acquiring an additional 361,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1,093.5% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 365,693 shares of the company's stock worth $49,445,000 after acquiring an additional 335,052 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Ingredion Trading Up 2.0%

INGR stock traded up $2.76 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $139.45. The company had a trading volume of 453,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 471,418. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $111.54 and a 52 week high of $155.44. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $133.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $8.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.36, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is presently 33.76%.

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.