Ingredion Incorporated (INGR) To Go Ex-Dividend on January 2nd

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be paid a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd.

Ingredion has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Ingredion has a payout ratio of 28.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Ingredion to earn $11.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.7%.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $137.14 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $142.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $132.47. The stock has a market cap of $8.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 2.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Ingredion has a fifty-two week low of $106.03 and a fifty-two week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. This represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,083,922.44. The trade was a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,197 shares of company stock valued at $9,702,325 in the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on INGR shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Stephens raised shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.17.

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.