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

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the five analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $151.40.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on INGR. 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 reduced their price target on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at $96,012,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 327.2% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 531,413 shares of the company's stock worth $73,101,000 after purchasing an additional 407,027 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 42.9% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,204,347 shares of the company's stock worth $162,840,000 after purchasing an additional 361,584 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1,093.5% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 365,693 shares of the company's stock worth $49,445,000 after purchasing an additional 335,052 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Ingredion Price Performance

Ingredion stock opened at $136.57 on Friday. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $113.44 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The stock has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.41, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $137.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.53% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.08 earnings per share. Ingredion's revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.34%. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.

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