ING Groep NV Buys Shares of 7,300 Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

ING Groep NV bought a new position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 7,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,004,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of INGR. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Ingredion by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,056,000 after acquiring an additional 268,389 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 2.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,529,000 after acquiring an additional 36,421 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,516,000 after purchasing an additional 19,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Ingredion by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 753,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,675,000 after purchasing an additional 28,306 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,685 shares of company stock valued at $9,414,112 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Price Performance

NYSE INGR opened at $128.07 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $133.87 and its 200 day moving average is $136.57. Ingredion Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $109.51 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62. The company has a market capitalization of $8.35 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on INGR. Stephens cut their target price on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays increased their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ingredion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $158.20.

Ingredion 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.