Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Short Interest Update

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,360,000 shares, an increase of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 1,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 534,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.5 days. Currently, 2.1% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In related news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were 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 directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. This represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,002,222,000 after purchasing an additional 84,863 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Ingredion by 0.8% during 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 during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Ingredion by 16.5% during 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 during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Ingredion by 2.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Ingredion by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,182,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,703,000 after buying an additional 14,741 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target 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. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens lowered their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Trading Down 1.2 %

Ingredion stock traded down $1.55 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $126.70. 506,544 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 568,262. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $135.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $136.39. Ingredion has a 52 week low of $109.51 and a 52 week high of $155.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.96%.

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.