Foster & Motley Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Foster & Motley Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 46.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,815 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,306 shares during the quarter. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $2,313,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new position in Ingredion during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the third quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 431.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 82.6% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the third quarter valued at approximately $86,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total transaction of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,454,105.94. This trade represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 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. Insiders sold a total of 65,692 shares of company stock valued at $9,634,868 over the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. 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. Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.17.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR stock opened at $137.42 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $139.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $135.52. 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 stock has a market cap of $8.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.75. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $107.40 and a 52-week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.22%.

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.