Wall Street Zen Upgrades Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) to Buy

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Sunday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on INGR. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Ingredion in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Ingredion from $144.00 to $130.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $147.20.

Ingredion Price Performance

NYSE:INGR opened at $121.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.81, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $130.72. The stock has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a PE ratio of 11.86, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $118.56 and a 52 week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 19.04% and a net margin of 9.24%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.87 earnings per share. Ingredion has set its FY 2025 guidance at 11.100-11.600 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 850 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.39, for a total transaction of $109,131.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 31,171 shares in the company, valued at $4,002,044.69. The trade was a 2.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 36,287 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.52, for a total value of $4,591,031.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 50,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,342,321.08. This trade represents a 41.99% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,137 shares of company stock valued at $4,700,163 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the first quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 810.7% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 40.2% in the first quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

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.