Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Has $507,000 Stock Position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 16.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,668 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Ingredion were worth $507,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ingredion by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,345,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $722,810,000 after purchasing an additional 161,922 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,790,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $504,608,000 after acquiring an additional 107,110 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,418,013 shares of the company’s stock valued at $247,617,000 after acquiring an additional 26,437 shares during the last quarter. Snyder Capital Management L P increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Snyder Capital Management L P now owns 1,427,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,245,000 after acquiring an additional 17,572 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Equity Investment Corp increased its stake in shares of Ingredion by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Equity Investment Corp now owns 908,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $89,424,000 after acquiring an additional 12,427 shares during the last quarter. 85.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total value of $6,399,076.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 99,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,635,601.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 2,369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $115.08, for a total transaction of $272,624.52. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 28,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,333,407.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 54,581 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.24, for a total value of $6,399,076.44. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 99,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,635,601.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 58,921 shares of company stock valued at $6,903,045. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

INGR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays upped their price target on Ingredion from $115.00 to $122.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of Ingredion in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Ingredion from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Ingredion from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $122.00 to $135.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $126.67.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR opened at $113.67 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.81. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $89.54 and a twelve month high of $118.83. The company has a 50 day moving average of $114.93 and a 200-day moving average of $107.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 18.57%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.65 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ingredion Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st will be issued a $0.78 dividend. This represents a $3.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 28th. Ingredion’s payout ratio is presently 32.50%.

About Ingredion

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.