Handelsbanken Fonder AB Decreases Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lessened its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 20.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,630 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,600 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $1,875,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the third quarter worth about $41,000. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth about $48,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 431.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 82.6% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 493 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on INGR. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ingredion has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:INGR opened at $132.47 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $133.61 and a 200 day moving average of $136.59. The stock has a market cap of $8.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12 month low of $109.51 and a 12 month high of $155.44. The company has a current ratio of 2.62, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. Ingredion’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.42%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is presently 32.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 65,685 shares of company stock worth $9,414,112 over the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is owned by 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.