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

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 12th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, April 22nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.45%.

Ingredion has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.0% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Ingredion has a dividend payout ratio of 27.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ingredion to earn $11.82 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 27.1%.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of INGR stock traded down $2.63 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $130.39. The stock had a trading volume of 896,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 605,743. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $131.97 and its 200 day moving average is $136.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.37 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $109.51 and a twelve month high of $155.44. 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) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com lowered Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Stephens cut their target price 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Ingredion Company 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.