Short Interest in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Decreases By 5.3%

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a drop of 5.3% from the July 31st total of 1,140,000 shares. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 382,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on INGR. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays raised Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $122.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.33.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR stock opened at $134.50 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.52 and a quick ratio of 1.51. Ingredion has a 1 year low of $89.54 and a 1 year high of $135.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $123.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $118.41.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.47% and a return on equity of 17.18%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 9.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.06%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,024,857.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.02, for a total value of $134,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,040,070.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,024,857.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,046,374.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,045 shares of company stock valued at $3,482,491 over the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ingredion

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,700,000. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC bought a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth approximately $426,000. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Ingredion by 59.8% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 425 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $258,000. 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.