William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $376,000 Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

William Blair Investment Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 25.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,736 shares of the company’s stock after selling 935 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $376,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $41,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on INGR shares. StockNews.com cut Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Stephens decreased 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. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.20.

Ingredion Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of INGR stock opened at $132.41 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $109.51 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $131.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.54.

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

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion’s 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 that occurred 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ingredion Company 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.