Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Shares Acquired by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,285,705 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84,863 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 11.18% of Ingredion worth $1,002,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in INGR. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC boosted its position in Ingredion by 195.2% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after acquiring an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,109,000 after buying an additional 83,708 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 1.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the period. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $344,000. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on INGR shares. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Stephens cut their price objective on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report 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, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value 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 $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:INGR opened at $134.86 on Friday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52 week low of $109.51 and a 52 week high of $155.44. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $131.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $136.45. The company has a market capitalization of $8.66 billion, a PE ratio of 13.89, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.37%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

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.