Martin Capital Partners LLC Decreases Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Martin Capital Partners LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 61.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,799 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,819 shares during the quarter. Martin Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $247,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,218,000 after acquiring an additional 328 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,519,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 222.6% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $524,000 after buying an additional 2,629 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in Ingredion in the third quarter valued at $471,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 21.1% in the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,368,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Trading Down 5.5 %

Shares of INGR opened at $127.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. Ingredion Incorporated has a one year low of $107.40 and a one year high of $155.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $138.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.10. The company has a market capitalization of $8.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.74.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.51%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ingredion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion 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 directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,083,922.44. The trade was a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,992 shares of company stock valued at $8,913,841 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

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.