FourThought Financial Partners LLC Invests $251,000 in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

FourThought Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,826 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $251,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Ingredion in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Crews Bank & Trust bought a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at $48,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Ingredion by 431.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the third quarter worth $86,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

INGR has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays upped their price target 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 reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.20.

Ingredion Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:INGR opened at $130.59 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The stock has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a 50 day moving average of $133.42 and a 200-day moving average of $136.61. Ingredion Incorporated has a one year low of $109.51 and a one year high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.45%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.96%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 sold a total of 65,685 shares of company stock valued at $9,414,112 in the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by 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.