Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Short Interest Update

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 747,200 shares, a drop of 15.5% from the September 15th total of 884,100 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 335,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INGR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised 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. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

Ingredion Stock Performance

NYSE:INGR traded up $0.97 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $134.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 252,578 shares, compared to its average volume of 377,325. Ingredion has a 12-month low of $89.54 and a 12-month high of $138.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $133.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market cap of $8.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.72.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.34. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.47% and a return on equity of 17.18%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 9.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.06%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $149,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,988,250. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $149,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,988,250. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $3,024,857.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,046,374.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,046 shares of company stock worth $3,482,626. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake 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 valued at $202,332,000 after acquiring an additional 846,967 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ingredion by 5.8% in the 4th 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 boosted its stake in Ingredion by 177.8% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 396,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,491,000 after purchasing an additional 253,949 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ingredion by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $308,009,000 after purchasing an additional 125,543 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in Ingredion by 43.8% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 405,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,303,000 after purchasing an additional 123,406 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is currently 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.