LPL Financial LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 94.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,804 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 21,231 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.07% of Ingredion worth $6,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of INGR. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Ingredion by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company's stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at $55,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on INGR. Stephens dropped their price target on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $145.00 target price (down from $165.00) on shares of Ingredion in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three investment 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 stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $152.60.

Ingredion Stock Performance

NYSE:INGR traded up $2.37 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $129.88. The company had a trading volume of 490,496 shares, compared to its average volume of 459,258. The firm has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a PE ratio of 13.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $109.51 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The business's 50 day moving average price is $130.28 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. Ingredion's revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.80% of the company's stock.

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.