Empowered Funds LLC Buys 24,389 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 144.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 41,246 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 24,389 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC owned about 0.06% of Ingredion worth $5,635,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Ingredion by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company's stock worth $308,009,000 after acquiring an additional 125,543 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Ingredion by 92.4% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company's stock valued at $202,332,000 after buying an additional 846,967 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its stake in Ingredion by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,018,002 shares of the company's stock valued at $116,765,000 after buying an additional 27,087 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 978,636 shares of the company's stock valued at $112,250,000 after buying an additional 26,526 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 759,588 shares of the company's stock valued at $87,125,000 after acquiring an additional 17,062 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ingredion Trading Down 5.6 %

Shares of NYSE:INGR opened at $140.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock's 50-day moving average is $137.55 and its 200-day moving average is $126.61. The company has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.73. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $100.90 and a 52-week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The company's revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This is a boost from Ingredion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total transaction of $174,239.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,040,595.90. This trade represents a 2.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total value of $721,027.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. This represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,056 shares of company stock valued at $4,121,736 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $155.17.

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.