Short Interest in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Drops By 5.3%

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,080,000 shares, a decline of 5.3% from the July 31st total of 1,140,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 382,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Ingredion Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Ingredion stock opened at $134.25 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion has a twelve month low of $89.54 and a twelve month high of $135.14. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $118.41.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.34. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.18% and a net margin of 8.47%. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.98 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 9.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.38%. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion’s payout ratio is presently 32.06%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,024,857.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $3,024,857.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total value of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,040,595.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,045 shares of company stock valued at $3,482,491. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ingredion

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Jones Financial Companies Lllp bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Ingredion by 102.6% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

INGR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays upgraded Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $137.33.

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.