Bridgewater Associates LP Makes New $3.74 Million Investment in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 27,172 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,738,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 653.3% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ingredion by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Up 1.2 %

INGR stock opened at $129.59 on Friday. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $111.49 and a twelve month high of $155.44. 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 company has a market cap of $8.33 billion, a PE ratio of 13.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $130.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $135.82.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.65 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.47%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.96%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

INGR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $145.00 target price (down previously from $165.00) on shares of Ingredion in a research report on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Stephens lowered their target price on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.60.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.