Handelsbanken Fonder AB Trims Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lessened its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,230 shares of the company’s stock after selling 900 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $1,544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in Ingredion by 63.9% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Ingredion by 414.1% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 401 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 323 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 40.2% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 359 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 33.7% during the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 484 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth about $96,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on INGR shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of Ingredion in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Ingredion from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $122.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com raised Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Ingredion from $115.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $126.67.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR stock opened at $113.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.80, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.81. The business’s fifty day moving average is $115.22 and its 200 day moving average is $108.06. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $89.54 and a twelve month high of $118.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.10. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.57% and a net margin of 7.88%. The firm had revenue of $1.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st were paid a $0.78 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.75%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.50%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total value of $6,399,076.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,635,601.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, VP Davida Marie Gable sold 1,968 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.38, for a total transaction of $231,003.84. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,723 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,245.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total value of $6,399,076.44. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,246 shares in the company, valued at $11,635,601.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 58,921 shares of company stock valued at $6,903,045. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

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.