Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR - Free Report) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 725,374 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.10% of Ingredion worth $99,683,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Ingredion by 154.0% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 77,890 shares of the company's stock worth $9,101,000 after purchasing an additional 47,225 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 113,876 shares of the company's stock worth $13,305,000 after buying an additional 21,619 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 1st quarter worth $1,812,000. Point72 DIFC Ltd grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 2,629.3% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 3,821 shares of the company's stock worth $438,000 after buying an additional 3,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 321,729 shares of the company's stock worth $36,902,000 after buying an additional 115,147 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total value of $174,239.00. Following the completion of 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 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total value of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,040,595.90. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,024,857.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,056 shares of company stock valued at $4,121,736. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on INGR shares. UBS Group increased their price target on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays increased their price target on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $151.00.

Ingredion Stock Up 1.0 %

INGR stock traded up $1.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $151.55. 488,970 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 382,900. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.67. The company has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $136.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.44. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $100.53 and a 12 month high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, October 1st. This is an increase from Ingredion's previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. Ingredion's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.22%.

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.