Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Moderate Buy" by the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $154.33.

INGR has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens dropped their price objective on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Ingredion stock traded down $1.55 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $126.70. The stock had a trading volume of 506,544 shares, compared to its average volume of 537,635. Ingredion has a 1 year low of $109.51 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock's 50 day moving average is $135.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.27. The stock has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74.

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. As a group, analysts predict that Ingredion will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Ingredion's payout ratio is presently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. South Plains Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth approximately $149,000. Jane Street Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 170.6% in the 4th quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 103,810 shares of the company's stock worth $14,280,000 after purchasing an additional 65,447 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 327.2% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 531,413 shares of the company's stock worth $73,101,000 after purchasing an additional 407,027 shares in the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth $1,483,000. Finally, Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 46,077 shares of the company's stock worth $6,338,000 after buying an additional 4,890 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.