Van ECK Associates Corp Increases Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 163,575 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,845 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 0.25% of Ingredion worth $22,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 5.5% during the third 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. Net Worth Advisory Group purchased a new position in Ingredion during the third quarter valued at $614,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 126.1% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,000 after purchasing an additional 749 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 11.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 230,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,636,000 after purchasing an additional 23,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Means Investment CO. Inc. purchased a new position in Ingredion during the third quarter valued at $204,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stephens decreased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $154.33.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $126.70 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $135.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $136.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.05, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52 week low of $109.51 and a 52 week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.65 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

About Ingredion

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.