California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 5,951 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 125,838 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,951 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.19% of Ingredion worth $17,310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Ingredion in the fourth quarter worth $96,012,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Ingredion by 38,341.7% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 509,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,067,000 after buying an additional 508,027 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Ingredion in the 4th quarter worth about $58,642,000. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in Ingredion by 93.2% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 652,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,790,000 after acquiring an additional 314,912 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Ingredion by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,056,000 after acquiring an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on INGR shares. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com cut Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Stephens decreased their price target on shares of Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $133.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $158.20.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR stock opened at $130.69 on Friday. Ingredion Incorporated has a 1-year low of $109.51 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $131.47 and its 200 day moving average is $136.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The company has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.46, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.71.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 18.62% and a net margin of 8.71%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. Research analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.96%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company 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.