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

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 28th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, October 22nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. This is a boost from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78.

Ingredion has increased its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Ingredion has a payout ratio of 29.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ingredion to earn $10.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.4%.

Ingredion Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of INGR traded up $1.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $133.77. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 349,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 383,451. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $89.54 and a 52 week high of $134.18. The stock has a market cap of $8.78 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.72. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $121.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.62. The company has a current ratio of 2.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on INGR. UBS Group increased their price objective on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 27,500 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,073,642.92. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $149,375.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,906 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,988,250. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 27,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.36, for a total transaction of $3,199,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,073,642.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,695 shares of company stock valued at $3,483,295. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

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.