MGP Ingredients (NASDAQ:MGPI) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

MGP Ingredients (NASDAQ:MGPI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MGPI. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on MGP Ingredients from $38.00 to $33.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of MGP Ingredients in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of MGP Ingredients from $30.00 to $27.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.00.

MGP Ingredients Stock Down 0.9%

MGPI opened at $24.09 on Friday. MGP Ingredients has a 1 year low of $21.67 and a 1 year high of $40.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $24.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 2.78. The company has a market cap of $512.97 million, a PE ratio of -35.96 and a beta of 0.39.

MGP Ingredients (NASDAQ:MGPI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $130.91 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.33 million. MGP Ingredients had a negative net margin of 2.56% and a positive return on equity of 9.65%. MGP Ingredients’s revenue for the quarter was down 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. MGP Ingredients has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.600-2.750 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that MGP Ingredients will post 5.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other MGP Ingredients news, Director Karen Seaberg sold 181,095 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.24, for a total transaction of $4,389,742.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 37,417 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $906,988.08. This trade represents a 82.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Caroline Lux Kaplan sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.85, for a total transaction of $715,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 560,958 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,378,848.30. This trade represents a 5.08% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 334,535 shares of company stock worth $8,224,668 over the last quarter. 34.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of MGP Ingredients by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,222,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,576,000 after acquiring an additional 99,995 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in MGP Ingredients by 32.8% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 987,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,879,000 after purchasing an additional 243,909 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC increased its stake in MGP Ingredients by 14.9% during the second quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 719,144 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,553,000 after purchasing an additional 93,086 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in MGP Ingredients by 13.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 400,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,015,000 after purchasing an additional 46,978 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of MGP Ingredients by 116.6% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 359,813 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,571,000 after purchasing an additional 193,660 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.11% of the company’s stock.

MGP Ingredients Company Profile

MGP Ingredients, Inc (NASDAQ: MGPI) is a leading producer of distilled spirits and specialty ingredient solutions for the food, beverage and consumer products industries. Headquartered in Atchison, Kansas, the company operates two main facilities—its historic Atchison plant, founded in 1941 as Midwest Grain Products, and a modern distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. MGP Ingredients supplies an array of distillation products under its beverage and ingredient segments, serving brand owners, private-label producers and co-packers worldwide.

The beverage segment features a broad portfolio of premium spirits, including bourbon and rye whiskies, vodka, gin and neutral spirits.