BMO Capital Markets Lowers Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Price Target to $133.00

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) had its target price cut by analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $147.00 to $133.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 5.39% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Barclays raised their price target on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens upgraded Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $156.17.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR traded down $0.93 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $126.20. The stock had a trading volume of 82,056 shares, compared to its average volume of 522,060. The company’s 50-day moving average is $138.82 and its 200 day moving average is $136.10. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $107.40 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company has a market capitalization of $8.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The firm 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 business earned $1.65 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,083,922.44. The trade was a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,992 shares of company stock worth $8,913,841 in the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ingredion

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 2.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,529,000 after buying an additional 36,421 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,516,000 after buying an additional 19,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Ingredion by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,930,000 after acquiring an additional 89,335 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.