Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 268,389 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned 2.90% of Ingredion worth $260,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Ingredion by 45.7% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,515 shares of the company’s stock worth $346,000 after buying an additional 789 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ingredion by 39.5% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,874 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,000 after acquiring an additional 531 shares in the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 5,535 shares of the company’s stock worth $761,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares during the period. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 1,689 shares of the company’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 29,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,008,000 after purchasing an additional 4,123 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total value of $721,027.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. The trade was a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 65,692 shares of company stock worth $9,634,868. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Ingredion stock opened at $135.60 on Monday. Ingredion Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $107.37 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. The stock has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $140.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.22.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on INGR shares. Barclays lifted their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective 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. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ingredion presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.17.

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.