Grandfield & Dodd LLC Invests $238,000 in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Grandfield & Dodd LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,733 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $238,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in INGR. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Ingredion during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $58,642,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ingredion by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,890,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $260,056,000 after purchasing an additional 268,389 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the third quarter valued at approximately $17,094,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Ingredion by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 842,763 shares of the company’s stock worth $115,930,000 after purchasing an additional 89,335 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Ingredion by 75.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 194,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,109,000 after purchasing an additional 83,708 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Ingredion Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of INGR stock opened at $130.55 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.38 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $132.87 and its 200 day moving average is $136.63. Ingredion Incorporated has a 12-month low of $109.51 and a 12-month high of $155.44.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.54 by $0.09. The firm 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 revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. Research analysts expect that Ingredion Incorporated will post 11.14 earnings per share 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 given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 2nd. Ingredion’s payout ratio is currently 32.96%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $178.00 to $167.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Ingredion from $165.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Stephens cut their price target on Ingredion from $155.00 to $150.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $158.20.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 10,815 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $1,361,392.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 34,127 shares in the company, valued at $4,295,906.76. This represents a 24.06 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.