Empowered Funds LLC Buys 24,389 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 144.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,246 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,389 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $5,635,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in INGR. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $308,009,000 after acquiring an additional 125,543 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Ingredion by 92.4% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,332,000 after purchasing an additional 846,967 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in Ingredion by 2.7% during the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,018,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $116,765,000 after buying an additional 27,087 shares during the period. Equity Investment Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 978,636 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,250,000 after buying an additional 26,526 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 759,588 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,125,000 after acquiring an additional 17,062 shares in the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on INGR. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective 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. UBS Group upped their price target on Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com cut Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays increased their target price on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Down 5.6 %

INGR stock opened at $140.83 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.69. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $100.90 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $137.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $126.53.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Ingredion’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st were paid a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, October 1st. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total transaction of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. This represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,000 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.02, for a total transaction of $134,020.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,040,070.60. This represents a 1.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 30,056 shares of company stock worth $4,121,736. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion 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.