Grace & White Inc. NY Trims Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Grace & White Inc. NY lowered its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 145,581 shares of the company’s stock after selling 985 shares during the quarter. Ingredion makes up about 3.7% of Grace & White Inc. NY’s holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Grace & White Inc. NY’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $20,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of INGR. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Ingredion during the third quarter valued at about $41,000. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 431.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 82.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 493 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares during the period. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the company’s 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. This represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,992 shares of company stock valued at $8,913,841. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target 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. Stephens lowered their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $154.33.

Ingredion Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of INGR opened at $127.88 on Thursday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $107.91 and a 1-year 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’s 50-day moving average price is $136.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $136.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current 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 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 2.50%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.96%.

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.