Machina Capital S.A.S. Takes Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 38,341.7% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 509,352 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,067,000 after purchasing an additional 508,027 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $58,642,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,752,000. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the third quarter valued at about $17,094,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on INGR shares. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stephens reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE INGR opened at $135.54 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $132.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $136.60. The company has a market capitalization of $8.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.96, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $109.51 and a 1-year high of $155.44.

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

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Ingredion Profile

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.