Ingredion Incorporated to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.80 (NYSE:INGR)

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd.

Ingredion has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Ingredion has a dividend payout ratio of 28.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ingredion to earn $11.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.7%.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of INGR traded down $0.82 on Tuesday, reaching $142.16. The stock had a trading volume of 458,258 shares, compared to its average volume of 391,312. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $105.78 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $130.80.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total value of $721,027.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. This represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,198 shares of company stock valued at $9,702,461 in the last 90 days. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on INGR. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $155.17.

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.