Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. Acquires Shares of 1,240 Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. bought a new position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $171,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Ingredion by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,002,222,000 after acquiring an additional 84,863 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after purchasing an additional 268,389 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,182,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,703,000 after purchasing an additional 14,741 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Ingredion by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 870,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,721,000 after purchasing an additional 46,819 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in Ingredion by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $115,930,000 after purchasing an additional 89,335 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on INGR. UBS Group set a $155.00 price objective on Ingredion in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Stephens reduced their price objective 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. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ingredion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.20.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of INGR stock opened at $140.91 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $132.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.71. The stock has a market cap of $9.06 billion, a PE ratio of 14.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $111.54 and a 12 month high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.53. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.08 earnings per share. Ingredion’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. Ingredion’s payout ratio is 33.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,996 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This trade represents a 24.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,215 shares of company stock valued at $1,687,360 over the last ninety days. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.