Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Sunday morning.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group set a $155.00 price target on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $152.20.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.6%

INGR opened at $138.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62. Ingredion has a fifty-two week low of $111.54 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $133.95 and its 200 day moving average is $134.96. The stock has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.53. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.08 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 33.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total value of $325,968.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,996 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,696.72. The trade was a 6.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 40.2% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Mindset Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Mindset Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,914 shares of the company’s stock worth $538,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,303 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Retirement Guys Formula LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Retirement Guys Formula LLC now owns 1,566 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.