Ingredion Incorporated (INGR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.80 on October 22nd

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be paid a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, October 22nd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. This is a positive change from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78.

Ingredion has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Ingredion has a payout ratio of 30.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ingredion to earn $10.60 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.2%.

Ingredion Price Performance

NYSE:INGR opened at $137.37 on Friday. Ingredion has a 52-week low of $89.54 and a 52-week high of $138.37. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $130.57 and a 200 day moving average of $120.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 2.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 0.73.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.34. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.18% and a net margin of 8.47%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.32 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Ingredion will post 9.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $3,024,857.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Ingredion news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.03, for a total transaction of $174,239.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,040,595.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.14, for a total transaction of $3,024,857.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,046,374.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 26,045 shares of company stock valued at $3,482,491. Insiders own 1.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on INGR. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays raised Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Ingredion currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $137.33.

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.