Heartland Advisors, an investment management company, released its “Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the portfolio returned 3.07% compared to a 1.32% gain for the Russell Midcap Value Index. During the quarter the company shifted its focus to beaten-down shares of well-run businesses believing that it would benefit if the market became less fearful of the business cycle. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted stocks like Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in the first quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Westchester, Illinois, Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) engages in the production and sale of food and beverage ingredients. On April 12, 2023, Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) stock closed at $101.56 per share. One-month return of Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) was 5.56%, and its shares gained 13.46% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) has a market capitalization of $6.7 billion.
Heartland Mid Cap Value Fund made the following comment about Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in its Q1 2023 investor letter:
“Cosumer Staples. We also established a new position in Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR), a global food products company that converts corn, tapioca, potatoes, grains, fruits, and vegetables into ingredients and biomaterials for the food, beverage, and other industries. Ingredion’s business has been under pressure in recent years. High fructose corn syrup has been in secular decline because of shifting dietary preferences toward natural sweeteners. Moreover, inflationary pressures in recent years have put downward pressure on margins largely due to a spike in agricultural commodity prices.
However, INGR has begun demonstrating its ability to raise prices in order to offset rising production costs, albeit with a lag. We expect this trend to continue going forward, allowing for continued margin recovery. The company’s self-help drivers also give us confidence. Ingredion has been increasing its high-margin specialty segment as a percentage of its overall sales. Within the company’s lower growth ingredients segment, management is repurposing production capacity toward higher-value products.
INGR has historically traded at a 20-30% discount to its sector peers. Today, INGR trades at 7.9 times consensus EV/EBITDA over the next 12 months, which is around a 40% discount.”
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Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 28 hedge fund portfolios held Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 27 in the previous quarter.
We discussed Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE:INGR) in another article and shared the list of best agriculture stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
