Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Shares Sold by Heartland Advisors Inc.

Heartland Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 87,985 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,589 shares during the quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $12,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of INGR. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Ingredion by 653.3% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 226 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ingredion by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Finally, Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR opened at $135.46 on Friday. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $109.51 and a twelve month high of $155.44. 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 firm has a market cap of $8.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.95, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.46.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The company had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.96%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other Ingredion 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

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.