One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$175.17 our estimate vs market $101.26
Wall Street consensus: $121.50 (-30.6% lower than our fair-value estimate)
42% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Ingredion Incorporated
INGR · NYQ · Consumer Defensive · Packaged Foods
Current price
$101.26
52-week range
$94.44 - $128.63
Market cap
$6.39B
Balance sheet
Healthy
28.03x Strong cushion
Net debt $831.00M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
0 Risks
3 rewards · 0 risks
- Reward Returns 13.7% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
- Reward Trades at 11.0x P/E vs peer median 24.2x (54.6% cheaper).
What this company does
Ingredion Incorporated
Ingredion turns crops like corn into specialty ingredients such as starches and sweeteners, which are used in everything from yogurt and candy to paper and medicine. The company makes money by selling these essential components to other large businesses that create the final products you buy in stores. Because its ingredients are fundamental to so many everyday items, Ingredion is a critical part of the supply chain (the network of companies involved in creating and distributing a product) for the food and industrial sectors.
How the company got here
Ingredion started over a century ago in 1906, originally named the Corn Products Refining Company. For decades, it focused on turning corn into familiar pantry items like Mazola corn oil and Karo syrup. Over time, the company expanded across the globe and began using other plants, not just corn, to create ingredients. To reflect this broader focus, it changed its name to Ingredion in 2012 and has since acquired smaller companies to build expertise in more specialized, high-value ingredients.
What it actually does
Ingredion is a company that makes the ingredients other companies use to produce everyday items. It takes raw materials like corn, potatoes, fruits, and vegetables and processes them into starches, sweeteners, and texturizers. You won't find the Ingredion brand in your grocery aisle, but their ingredients are in the foods you eat, the beverages you drink, and even in products like paper, medicines, and lotions. Essentially, they provide the components that make crackers crunchy, yogurt creamy, candy sweet, or tissues soft and strong.
Texture & Healthful Solutions
This is Ingredion's global business focused on creating specialized ingredients that improve a product's feel or nutritional value. This segment develops solutions that make foods thicker or creamier, or help reduce sugar and add fiber. Companies pay Ingredion for these premium ingredients to meet consumer demands for healthier, 'clean label' products (products with simple, recognizable ingredients). This is the company's main area for growth and innovation.
Food & Industrial Ingredients–U.S./CANADA
This part of the business sells a wide range of ingredients, including foundational starches and sweeteners, to customers in the United States and Canada. The customers are large food and beverage makers, as well as companies in industrial sectors like paper and packaging. This is a high-volume business that provides the steady, reliable cash flow (money coming in from sales after subtracting the costs to run the business) that helps fund investments in other, faster-growing parts of the company.
Food & Industrial Ingredients–LATAM
Similar to its U.S./Canada counterpart, this segment serves customers across Latin America. It supplies essential ingredients derived from corn and other plants to a variety of industries, from bakeries and beverage makers to brewers. This business leverages Ingredion's long-standing manufacturing presence in the region to provide localized products and support. It is a significant contributor to the company's overall sales and profits.
What management is betting on now
Management's main strategy is to focus on selling more high-value specialty ingredients from its Texture & Healthful Solutions business. They are betting that consumer demand for healthier foods, such as those with less sugar or more plant-based protein, will continue to grow. The company is investing heavily in innovation to create these specialized ingredients. The plan is to use the profits from their traditional ingredient businesses to fuel this shift toward more profitable, solution-oriented products.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$429.00M
FY2024 Q4
$305.00M
FY2025 Q1
$-15.00M
FY2025 Q2
$84.00M
FY2025 Q3
$172.00M
FY2025 Q4
$270.00M
FY2026 Q1
$-77.00M
FY2026 Q2
$-10.00M
Revenue
$1.85B
Net income
$114.00M
Diluted EPS
1.78
Operating cash flow
$90.00M
Free cash flow
$-10.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.79B
Net income
$142.00M
Diluted EPS
2.22
Operating cash flow
$33.00M
Free cash flow
$-77.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.76B
Net income
$165.00M
Diluted EPS
2.56
Operating cash flow
$405.00M
Free cash flow
$270.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.82B
Net income
$171.00M
Diluted EPS
2.61
Operating cash flow
$277.00M
Free cash flow
$172.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.83B
Net income
$196.00M
Diluted EPS
2.99
Operating cash flow
$185.00M
Free cash flow
$84.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.81B
Net income
$197.00M
Diluted EPS
3.00
Operating cash flow
$77.00M
Free cash flow
$-15.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.80B
Net income
$95.00M
Diluted EPS
1.43
Operating cash flow
$436.00M
Free cash flow
$305.00M
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Sources
Revenue
$1.87B
Net income
$188.00M
Diluted EPS
2.83
Operating cash flow
$479.00M
Free cash flow
$429.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $175.17 vs current price $101.26
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $121.50 (-30.6% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $175.17 a share — about 73.0% above today's price of $101.26, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $831.0M. Interest coverage 28.0x.
Net debt
$831.00M
Interest coverage
28.03x
Ingredion Incorporated's profit covers its interest bill about 28.0 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
INGR
BASELINE
Ingredion Incorporated
Total debt $1.78B Interest coverage 28.03x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $9.34B Interest coverage 2.33x -92% vs INGR Carries about 12.0x less debt cushion than INGR.
Total debt $17.06B Interest coverage 2.06x -93% vs INGR Carries about 13.6x less debt cushion than INGR.
Total debt $1.29B Interest coverage 4.28x -85% vs INGR Carries about 6.5x less debt cushion than INGR.
Total debt $6.28B Interest coverage 3.68x -87% vs INGR Carries about 7.6x less debt cushion than INGR.
Total debt $3.28B Interest coverage 10.19x -64% vs INGR Carries about 2.7x less debt cushion than INGR.
What you should know
The case for and against INGR
3 Rewards
0 Risks
Rewards
-
Returns 13.7% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 9/10 years.
-
Trades at 11.0x P/E vs peer median 24.2x (54.6% cheaper).
Risks
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
11.01x
Forward P/E
8.92x
P/B
1.41x
P/S
0.89x
EV/EBITDA
6.25x
PEG ratio
1.20x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
23.7%
Operating margin
12.6%
Net margin
8.2%
ROE
13.7%
ROA
7.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.39x
Current ratio
2.80x
Quick ratio
1.86x
Total debt
$1.78B
Total cash
$952.00M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$7.21B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
1.2%
EPS TTM
9.20
EPS 5Y CAGR
15.1%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$805.00M
Free CF TTM
$511.00M
FCF margin
7.1%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
3.2%
Payout ratio
35.6%
Last ex-div date
2026-07-01