Stephens Lowers Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Price Target to $150.00

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) had its price target cut by investment analysts at Stephens from $155.00 to $150.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Stephens’ price objective would suggest a potential upside of 17.79% from the company’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on INGR. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer boosted 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, November 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $154.33.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR opened at $127.34 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $138.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $136.03. The stock has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion has a 1-year low of $107.77 and a 1-year high of $155.44. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.54 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ingredion news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total value of $8,052,574.44. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,795 shares in the company, valued at $1,877,794.20. This trade represents a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,083,922.44. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 60,992 shares of company stock worth $8,913,841. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning grew its stake in Ingredion by 3.2% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 10,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,218,000 after purchasing an additional 328 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 222.6% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $524,000 after buying an additional 2,629 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $471,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 17,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,368,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 60.5% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $132,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.