Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Sells 400 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL reduced its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 30,913 shares of the company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $3,612,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sheaff Brock Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter valued at $7,259,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 42.3% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 22,141 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,587,000 after purchasing an additional 6,580 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter valued at $226,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 86.6% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 4,540 shares of the company’s stock valued at $530,000 after purchasing an additional 2,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the first quarter valued at $3,936,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on INGR. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $127.17.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of INGR stock traded up $1.49 on Friday, hitting $121.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 278,038 shares, compared to its average volume of 374,796. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 2.44. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $115.97 and its 200-day moving average is $114.58. Ingredion Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $89.54 and a fifty-two week high of $122.18. The company has a market capitalization of $7.96 billion, a PE ratio of 12.15, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.72.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.08. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.45% and a return on equity of 16.56%. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.80 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue was down 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Monday, July 1st were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 1st. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is 31.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.36, for a total transaction of $3,199,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,073,642.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 27,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.36, for a total transaction of $3,199,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,073,642.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 8,490 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.74, for a total transaction of $1,033,572.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,214,489.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 38,359 shares of company stock valued at $4,515,644 over the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company 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.