Teacher Retirement System of Texas Reduces Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lowered its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 28.2% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 54,069 shares of the company’s stock after selling 21,210 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Ingredion were worth $7,311,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth $96,012,000. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in Ingredion by 327.2% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 531,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,101,000 after purchasing an additional 407,027 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 93.2% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 652,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $89,790,000 after buying an additional 314,912 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 536.6% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 361,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,680,000 after buying an additional 304,421 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth about $31,752,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. UBS Group set a $155.00 price target on Ingredion in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $152.20.

Ingredion Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE:INGR opened at $137.35 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.83 billion, a PE ratio of 14.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $137.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $133.88. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $111.93 and a 12-month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.85, a quick ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 19.75% and a net margin of 8.53%. Ingredion’s revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.08 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.76%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 31,996 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,345,696.72. The trade was a 6.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.