Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Plans $0.78 Quarterly Dividend

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 15th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.78 per share on Tuesday, July 23rd. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 1st.

Ingredion has raised its dividend by an average of 5.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Ingredion has a dividend payout ratio of 30.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Ingredion to earn $10.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.1%.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $114.70 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Ingredion has a 1 year low of $89.54 and a 1 year high of $122.18. The firm has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 11.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.74.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.08. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.45% and a return on equity of 16.56%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 9.76 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ingredion from $117.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $115.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $127.17.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In related news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.11, for a total transaction of $282,171.59. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,436,085.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO James D. Gray sold 8,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.74, for a total transaction of $1,033,572.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 42,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,214,489.42. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.11, for a total transaction of $282,171.59. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 28,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,436,085.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 38,359 shares of company stock valued at $4,515,644 in the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.