Ameriprise Financial Inc. Has $21.78 Million Stock Holdings in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 158,346 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 14,178 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $21,782,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,285,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,002,222,000 after buying an additional 84,863 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after buying an additional 268,389 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,182,434 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,703,000 after buying an additional 14,741 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 5.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 870,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,721,000 after buying an additional 46,819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in shares of Ingredion by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,930,000 after buying an additional 89,335 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total transaction of $1,361,392.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,295,906.76. This trade represents a 24.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.82, for a total transaction of $325,968.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 31,996 shares in the company, valued at $4,345,696.72. This represents a 6.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 13,215 shares of company stock valued at $1,687,360 in the last three months. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $167.00 to $155.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $155.00 target price on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stephens cut their target price on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $152.20.

Ingredion Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NYSE:INGR opened at $135.46 on Thursday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 52-week low of $111.54 and a 52-week high of $155.44. The company has a market capitalization of $8.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $132.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $135.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.62.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.44 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.71% and a return on equity of 18.62%. The business’s revenue was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.36%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.76%.

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.