What does Ingredion do?

Ingredion processes corn and other starchy crops into ingredients that other companies use in their products. Its sweeteners and starches go into foods and drinks like baked goods, candy, dairy and beverages. Its starches are also used in paper, textiles, adhesives, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and biodegradable plastics.

What is Ingredion's fair value?

On an owner-earnings DCF, Ingredion's most-likely fair value is about $178, versus a recent price near $95. A margin-of-safety estimate, not a price target. Analysis, not advice.

Consumer Defensive · Packaged Foods · INGR

What Ingredion Does & How It Makes Money (INGR)

Updated October 2026 · reflects Ingredion's latest reported financials

Global maker of corn- and starch-based food and industrial ingredients. It buys corn and other starch-based raw materials, wet-mills and processes them, and sells the resulting sweeteners, starches and nutrition ingredients to food, beverage and industrial manufacturers worldwide.

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How Ingredion makes money

It buys corn and other starch-based raw materials, wet-mills and processes them, and sells the resulting sweeteners, starches and nutrition ingredients to food, beverage and industrial manufacturers worldwide. It also sells co-products such as corn oil, corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal.

What Ingredion does

Ingredion Incorporated, founded in 1906 and headquartered in Westchester, Illinois, makes ingredients from corn and other starch-based materials, mainly by wet milling. Its products include glucose syrups, high maltose syrup, high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, polyols, maltodextrin and non-GMO syrups for food and beverage makers. It also sells a wide range of specialty and industrial starches for processed foods, paper, textiles, construction materials, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, mining and water filtration. The company reports three segments: Texture & Healthful Solutions, Food & Industrial Ingredients LATAM, and Food & Industrial Ingredients U.S./Canada. Co-products such as refined corn oil, corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal add to its revenue. It was previously called Corn Products International and took the name Ingredion in June 2012.

Products & services

Specialty and industrial starches
Glucose syrups
High fructose corn syrup
Dextrose and maltodextrin
Polyols
Refined corn oil and corn gluten feed/meal

What is Ingredion worth?

On an owner-earnings DCF, Ingredion's most-likely value is about $178 versus a recent price near $95 (87% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$102) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.

Verdict: Fairly priced — no edge

Owner-earnings fair value · recent price ≈ $95

Fair value (most likely)

$178

Range

$140–$250

No-growth floor

$102

Price

~$95

Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.

Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →

Sector Consumer Defensive Industry Packaged Foods HQ United States Ticker INGR Official site

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