Is Ingredion Inc (INGR) A Good Stock To Buy?

Based on the fact that hedge funds have collectively under-performed the market for several years, it would be easy to assume that their stock picks simply aren’t very good. However, our research shows this not to be the case. In fact, when it comes to their very top picks collectively, they show a strong ability to pick winning stocks. Between November 1, 2014 and October 30 of this year, less than 49% of the stocks in the S&P 500 beat the market. However, hedge funds’ top 30 stock picks from the index had a much higher success rate than this, at 63%. The returns from these 30 stocks also easily bested the broader market, at 9.5% compared to 5.2%, despite there being a few duds in there like Micron and Anadarko (even their collective wisdom isn’t perfect). The results show that there is plenty of merit to imitating the collective wisdom of top investors.

Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR) has experienced an increase in support from the world’s most elite money managers in recent months. At the end of this article we will also compare INGR to other stocks including NVR, Inc. (NYSE:NVR), TECO Energy, Inc. (NYSE:TE), and Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd (NYSE:QIHU) to get a better sense of its popularity.

With all of this in mind, let’s go over the recent action encompassing Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR).

What have hedge funds been doing with Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR)?

At Q3’s end, a total of 23 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from one quarter earlier. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management has the largest position in Ingredion Inc (NYSE:INGR), worth close to $65.5 million, comprising 0.1% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is AQR Capital Management, led by Cliff Asness, holding a $39.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining members of the smart money with similar optimism consist of Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management, David Harding’s Winton Capital Management and Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors.