Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,140,000 shares, a growth of 21.2% from the July 15th total of 940,700 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 413,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $130.99 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $118.85 and a 200-day moving average of $116.45. Ingredion has a fifty-two week low of $89.54 and a fifty-two week high of $131.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.72.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 16.56% and a net margin of 8.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ingredion will post 9.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays raised Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $122.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $137.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $149,375.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,988,250. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Ingredion news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $149,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares in the company, valued at $1,988,250. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 27,500 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.36, for a total value of $3,199,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 52,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,073,642.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,695 shares of company stock valued at $3,349,275 in the last 90 days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,332,000 after acquiring an additional 846,967 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,272,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,773,126 shares of the company’s stock worth $843,617,000 after purchasing an additional 427,496 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Ingredion by 177.8% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 396,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,491,000 after buying an additional 253,949 shares during the period. Finally, Morningstar Investment Services LLC increased its position in Ingredion by 98.5% during the fourth quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 393,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,789,000 after acquiring an additional 195,106 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is owned by 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.