Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.80

Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, December 17th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.80 per share on Tuesday, January 21st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 2nd.

Ingredion has increased its dividend by an average of 5.5% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Ingredion has a payout ratio of 28.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Ingredion to earn $11.16 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 28.7%.

Ingredion Price Performance

Shares of INGR traded down $0.82 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $142.16. 458,257 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 391,311. The stock has a market cap of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.74. Ingredion has a 1-year low of $105.78 and a 1-year high of $155.44. The company has a 50 day moving average of $141.76 and a 200-day moving average of $130.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 2.67.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.47. Ingredion had a return on equity of 17.75% and a net margin of 9.05%. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ingredion will post 10.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on INGR shares. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $147.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on Ingredion from $145.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Ingredion from $128.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group boosted their price target 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. Finally, Stephens raised Ingredion to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $155.17.

Insider Activity at Ingredion

In other Ingredion news, SVP Larry Fernandes sold 4,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.41, for a total value of $721,027.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,034 shares in the company, valued at $4,454,105.94. This represents a 13.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 371 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.58, for a total value of $49,558.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 52,159 shares in the company, valued at $6,967,399.22. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 66,198 shares of company stock valued at $9,702,461 over the last quarter. 1.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.