ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires 2,057 Shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 368,095 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,057 shares during the period. Ingredion comprises 2.1% of ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.56% of Ingredion worth $50,587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ingredion by 102.6% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion during the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ingredion in the second quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.27% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

INGR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $126.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Ingredion from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ingredion from $141.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays raised shares of Ingredion from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $122.00 to $145.00 in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Ingredion from $120.00 to $128.00 and gave the company a “market perform” 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

Insider Transactions at Ingredion

In other news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of Ingredion stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total transaction of $149,375.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,988,250. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Robert A. Ritchie sold 1,195 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $149,375.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,906 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,988,250. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James P. Zallie sold 22,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 52,530 shares in the company, valued at $7,046,374.20. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,551 shares of company stock valued at $3,550,084 over the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Ingredion Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE INGR opened at $135.50 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $133.88 and its 200-day moving average is $122.46. The stock has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 0.72. Ingredion Incorporated has a twelve month low of $89.54 and a twelve month high of $138.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

Ingredion (NYSE:INGR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. Ingredion had a net margin of 8.47% and a return on equity of 17.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Ingredion Incorporated will post 9.95 EPS for the current year.

Ingredion Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.36%. This is a boost from Ingredion’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 1st. Ingredion’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.06%.

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.