Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report issued on Sunday.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer reduced 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. UBS Group set a $155.00 price objective on Ingredion in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $152.20.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of INGR opened at $137.98 on Friday. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $111.54 and a 52 week high of $155.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.08 EPS. The company's revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 transaction of $325,968.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 2.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingredion

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter worth $26,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ingredion by 653.3% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company's stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Hedge funds and other 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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