Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Shares Gap Down - Should You Sell?

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $135.36, but opened at $131.00. Ingredion shares last traded at $129.82, with a volume of 344,096 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on INGR shares. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ingredion from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, June 8th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $151.40.

Ingredion Stock Performance

The stock's 50 day moving average price is $137.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $133.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a current ratio of 2.85. The company has a market capitalization of $8.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.72.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.53% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is currently 33.76%.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 31,996 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingredion

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of INGR. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Ingredion by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,002,222,000 after acquiring an additional 84,863 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Ingredion by 6.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,755,683 shares of the company's stock valued at $372,594,000 after acquiring an additional 177,387 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Ingredion by 1.9% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,218,628 shares of the company's stock valued at $164,771,000 after acquiring an additional 22,333 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Ingredion by 42.9% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,204,347 shares of the company's stock valued at $162,840,000 after acquiring an additional 361,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ingredion by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,182,434 shares of the company's stock valued at $162,703,000 after acquiring an additional 14,741 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

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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