Prudential Financial Inc. Buys 314,912 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Prudential Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 93.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 652,734 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 314,912 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $89,790,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in INGR. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Ingredion by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in Ingredion during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, Millstone Evans Group LLC bought a new stake in Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at about $55,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on INGR shares. Stephens cut their price objective on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $158.20.

Ingredion Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of Ingredion stock opened at $132.99 on Tuesday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $109.51 and a 52-week high of $155.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.54 billion, a PE ratio of 13.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $131.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $136.50.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $1.80 billion for 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.41%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

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.