Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Increases Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 1,030.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 927 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 845 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $125,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Ingredion by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 583,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,209,000 after purchasing an additional 10,703 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Ingredion by 606.2% during the 4th quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 38,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,230,000 after buying an additional 32,639 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Ingredion in the 1st quarter worth about $646,000. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Ingredion by 156.7% in the 1st quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,086 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,499,000 after purchasing an additional 6,768 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its position in Ingredion by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Price Performance

Ingredion stock opened at $134.57 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $137.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.73. The company has a market capitalization of $8.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1 year low of $117.49 and a 1 year high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a current ratio of 2.85.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.53. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.53% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 33.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total value of $325,968.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 31,996 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on INGR. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 8th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective 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. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $149.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $151.40.

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.