California Public Employees Retirement System Trims Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 125,838 shares of the company's stock after selling 5,951 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned 0.19% of Ingredion worth $17,310,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Ingredion by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company's stock worth $1,002,222,000 after acquiring an additional 84,863 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Ingredion by 0.8% during 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. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company's stock worth $260,056,000 after purchasing an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company's stock worth $160,516,000 after purchasing an additional 19,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company's stock valued at $115,930,000 after purchasing an additional 89,335 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on INGR shares. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Stephens dropped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $145.00 price objective (down previously from $165.00) on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $152.60.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at $4,295,906.76. This trade represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR traded up $5.07 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $128.29. The company had a trading volume of 1,035,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 458,408. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $109.51 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $130.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.11. The stock has a market cap of $8.23 billion, a PE ratio of 13.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.72. 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 (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. Ingredion's revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.96%.

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.