Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Short Interest Up 33.8% in February

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,820,000 shares, an increase of 33.8% from the January 31st total of 1,360,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 533,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on INGR shares. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Barclays upped their price target 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. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $158.20.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ingredion

In other news, 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 in the company, valued at $4,295,906.76. The trade was a 24.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Ingredion

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of INGR. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 195.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,676 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ingredion by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,436,601 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,862,000 after purchasing an additional 19,560 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Ingredion by 75.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,109,000 after buying an additional 83,708 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 725,374 shares of the company’s stock worth $99,683,000 after buying an additional 10,812 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fractal Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the fourth quarter worth $344,000. 85.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ingredion Price Performance

INGR stock traded down $0.11 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $130.44. The stock had a trading volume of 153,530 shares, compared to its average volume of 564,067. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $132.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.74. 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 has a 52 week low of $109.51 and a 52 week high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ingredion will post 11.14 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.96%.

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.