Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Shares Acquired by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 583,081 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,703 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.89% of Ingredion worth $80,209,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Forum Financial Management LP grew its holdings in Ingredion by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 2,203 shares of the company's stock worth $303,000 after acquiring an additional 194 shares during the period. GeoWealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 220.4% in the 4th quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 2,759 shares of the company's stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 1,898 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,890 shares of the company's stock worth $1,223,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new position in Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,738,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at $477,000. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on INGR. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $145.00 target price (down from $165.00) on shares of Ingredion in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Stephens cut their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $152.60.

Ingredion Trading Down 0.9 %

NYSE INGR opened at $128.57 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a PE ratio of 13.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $111.54 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $130.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $135.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.65 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is presently 32.96%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.80% 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.

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