Empowered Funds LLC Has $6.33 Million Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 12.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 46,302 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,056 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $6,332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,862,000 after purchasing an additional 19,560 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted 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 valued at $260,056,000 after acquiring an additional 268,389 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 36,421 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Ingredion by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,516,000 after acquiring an additional 19,064 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Ingredion by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,683,000 after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INGR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stephens decreased their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays raised their price objective on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $154.33.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR stock opened at $127.66 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $137.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.28. Ingredion Incorporated has a one year low of $107.77 and a one year high of $155.44. The firm has a market cap of $8.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.96%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This represents a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,992 shares of company stock valued at $8,913,841 in the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Ingredion 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.