Brokerages Set Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Price Target at $151.40

Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the five ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $151.40.

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on INGR shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Sunday, June 8th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the business'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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 31,996 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,345,696.72. The trade was a 6.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 653.3% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 40.2% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company's stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ingredion Stock Performance

NYSE INGR traded down $0.58 on Friday, reaching $135.77. The stock had a trading volume of 386,288 shares, compared to its average volume of 469,986. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a current ratio of 2.85. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $113.44 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The business's 50-day moving average price is $137.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $133.83. The stock has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.72.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 quarter last 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 analysts expect that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. Ingredion's payout ratio is currently 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.