Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Buys Shares of 199 Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Ingredion by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 36,421 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 valued at $160,516,000 after acquiring an additional 19,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Ingredion by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after purchasing an additional 10,812 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $127.83 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $107.77 and a 52-week high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $138.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $135.97.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its 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. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,083,922.44. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,992 shares of company stock valued at $8,913,841 over the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.