Vest Financial LLC Acquires New Shares in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 18,497 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,501,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ingredion by 14.5% in the first quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 766 shares during the period. Whipplewood Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Ingredion by 737.3% in the 1st quarter. Whipplewood Advisors LLC now owns 427 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Ingredion by 37.4% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 3,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 852 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 180,400.0% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 1,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,000 after acquiring an additional 1,804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American National Bank & Trust bought a new position in Ingredion during the first quarter worth about $619,000. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on INGR. UBS Group set a $155.00 price target on Ingredion in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $152.20.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 31,996 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,345,696.72. This trade represents a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.9%

INGR stock opened at $137.98 on Friday. 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 has a market capitalization of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73. Ingredion Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $111.54 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The business has a 50-day moving average of $133.84 and a 200-day moving average of $135.10.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.53. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.08 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.32%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.76%.

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.