Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Sells 35,685 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 42.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,345 shares of the company’s stock after selling 35,685 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $6,788,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Ingredion during the second quarter worth $33,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ingredion during the 3rd quarter worth about $41,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Ingredion by 431.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners grew its holdings in Ingredion by 82.6% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 493 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays raised their price target on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Stephens upgraded shares of Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ingredion presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:INGR traded down $2.49 on Friday, reaching $131.02. 167,521 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 340,343. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $107.20 and a twelve month high of $155.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $142.90 and a 200-day moving average of $133.34. The company has a market capitalization of $8.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.47. The firm had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.94 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The company’s revenue was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.22%.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In related news, CFO James D. Gray sold 54,869 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $146.76, for a total transaction of $8,052,574.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 12,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,794.20. The trade was a 81.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 6,122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.66, for a total value of $861,120.52. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,083,922.44. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 65,692 shares of company stock valued at $9,634,868. 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.