Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 6,882 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC trimmed its stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 12.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 47,242 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,882 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $6,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Ingredion by 92.4% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,332,000 after buying an additional 846,967 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter worth about $58,642,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Ingredion by 55,219.9% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 174,811 shares of the company’s stock valued at $240,240,000 after purchasing an additional 174,495 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new stake in Ingredion in the 3rd quarter worth about $17,094,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ingredion by 55.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 321,729 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,902,000 after purchasing an additional 115,147 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction of $861,120.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,083,922.44. The trade was a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,692 shares of company stock worth $9,634,868 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR opened at $135.16 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.19, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $107.20 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $141.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $134.25.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on INGR. Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $155.17.

About Ingredion

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.