Brokerages Set Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Target Price at $155.17

Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $155.17.

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their price target on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens raised shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th.

Ingredion Trading Up 1.0 %

INGR stock opened at $136.79 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.35, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $140.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $134.73. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $107.20 and a 52 week high of $155.44.

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

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.34%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingredion

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after purchasing an additional 19,560 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Ingredion by 16.5% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after acquiring an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Ingredion by 2.4% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ingredion by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,516,000 after acquiring an additional 19,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ingredion by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after acquiring an additional 10,812 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.