UBS Group Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) Stock

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) had its price objective increased by UBS Group from $165.00 to $173.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. UBS Group’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 22.84% from the stock’s current price.

INGR has been the topic of several other research reports. StockNews.com lowered Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.17.

Ingredion Stock Performance

Shares of INGR stock opened at $140.83 on Friday. Ingredion has a one year low of $100.90 and a one year high of $155.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $137.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $126.53. The firm has a market cap of $9.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 0.73.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a net margin of 9.05% and a return on equity of 17.75%. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ingredion will post 10.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total value of $49,558.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,967,399.22. The trade was a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total transaction of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,454,105.94. This trade represents a 13.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 30,056 shares of company stock worth $4,121,736. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Ingredion by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,685,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,009,000 after acquiring an additional 125,543 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Ingredion by 0.8% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Ingredion by 92.4% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,764,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $202,332,000 after purchasing an additional 846,967 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Ingredion by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,539,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,529,000 after buying an additional 36,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Ingredion by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,167,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,516,000 after buying an additional 19,064 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

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.