Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Short Interest Update

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) saw a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,000,000 shares, an increase of 92.9% from the November 30th total of 518,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 447,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days. Approximately 1.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total value of $49,558.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at $6,967,399.22. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,198 shares of company stock worth $9,702,461 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ingredion

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 195.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 2,629.3% during the second quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 3,821 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 3,681 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after buying an additional 19,560 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 75.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,109,000 after purchasing an additional 83,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ingredion by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 321,729 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,902,000 after buying an additional 115,147 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.2 %

Ingredion stock traded down $0.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $138.57. The stock had a trading volume of 245,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 398,953. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $142.71 and a 200 day moving average price of $132.19. The stock has a market cap of $9.03 billion, a PE ratio of 13.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion has a 52-week low of $106.03 and a 52-week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on INGR shares. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays upped 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. UBS Group lifted their price target on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.17.

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.