Grandfield & Dodd LLC Buys New Shares in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Grandfield & Dodd LLC purchased a new position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 195.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 7,676 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% in the 3rd 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. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,109,000 after purchasing an additional 83,708 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ingredion by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,683,000 after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC purchased a new position in Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth $344,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Ingredion stock opened at $130.55 on Monday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1 year low of $109.51 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.44, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $132.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.63.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on INGR. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens lowered 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 note on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.20.

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.