Bridges Investment Management Inc. Buys New Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Bridges Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $528,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new stake in Ingredion in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Ingredion by 102.6% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Stock Performance

INGR opened at $134.98 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $128.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $120.14. The company has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a PE ratio of 13.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.73. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1 year low of $89.54 and a 1 year high of $137.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.52 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.53 by $0.34. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.18% and a net margin of 8.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.32 EPS. Research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.95 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.37%. This is an increase from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.06%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total transaction of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,040,595.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total value of $3,024,857.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,046,374.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 26,045 shares of company stock worth $3,482,491. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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