Grace & White Inc. NY Reduces Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Grace & White Inc. NY lowered its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 145,581 shares of the company’s stock after selling 985 shares during the period. Ingredion makes up approximately 3.7% of Grace & White Inc. NY’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Grace & White Inc. NY owned about 0.22% of Ingredion worth $20,026,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 222.6% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $524,000 after purchasing an additional 2,629 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,203 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,540,000 after buying an additional 584 shares in the last quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 368,095 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,587,000 after buying an additional 2,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the third quarter valued at approximately $614,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was 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 owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,083,922.44. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. This represents a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,992 shares of company stock worth $8,913,841. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stephens decreased their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $154.33.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR opened at $127.88 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $136.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $136.39. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $107.91 and a twelve month high of $155.44.

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

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 32.96%.

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.