Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) saw a significant decline in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 558,900 shares, a decline of 7.7% from the October 31st total of 605,400 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 394,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.4 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of INGR opened at $149.13 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.55, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion has a one year low of $104.52 and a one year high of $155.44. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $140.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $129.05. 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 (NYSE:INGR) last announced 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 net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total transaction of $49,558.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,967,399.22. This represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the firm’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 value of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,454,105.94. The trade was a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,197 shares of company stock worth $9,702,315 in the last 90 days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,332,000 after purchasing an additional 846,967 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Ingredion by 177.8% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 396,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,491,000 after acquiring an additional 253,949 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 55,219.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 174,811 shares of the company’s stock worth $240,240,000 after buying an additional 174,495 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Ingredion by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,009,000 after buying an additional 125,543 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in Ingredion in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $17,094,000. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

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.