Food ingredient solutions provider Ingredion (NYSE: INGR) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, but sales fell by 1.2% year on year to $1.79 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $2.34 per share was 5.3% below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Ingredion (INGR) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.79 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.79 billion (1.2% year-on-year decline, in line)
- Adjusted EPS: $2.34 vs analyst expectations of $2.47 (5.3% miss)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $258 million vs analyst estimates of $285 million (14.4% margin, 9.5% miss)
- Management lowered its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $10.80 at the midpoint, a 5.3% decrease
- Operating Margin: 11.3%, down from 15.2% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow was -$77 million compared to -$15 million in the same quarter last year
- Constant Currency Revenue was down 3% year on year
- Market Capitalization: $6.74 billion
“While we expected a challenging first quarter after last year’s strong first quarter, results were weaker than anticipated in Food & Industrial Ingredients—U.S./CAN due to operational challenges at our Argo facility,” said Jim Zallie, chairman, president and CEO of Ingredion.
Company Overview
Known for its ability to turn ordinary corn into thousands of different food ingredients, Ingredion (NYSE: INGR) transforms grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based materials into specialty starches, sweeteners and other ingredients for food, beverage and industrial markets.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance can indicate its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years.
With $7.20 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Ingredion is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because there are only so many big store chains to sell into, making it harder to find incremental growth. To accelerate sales, Ingredion likely needs to optimize its pricing or lean into new products and international expansion.
As you can see below, Ingredion’s revenue declined by 4.2% per year over the last three years, a poor baseline for our analysis.
This quarter, Ingredion reported a rather uninspiring 1.2% year-on-year revenue decline to $1.79 billion of revenue, in line with Wall Street’s estimates.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 2.9% over the next 12 months. Although this projection indicates its newer products will spur better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Cash Is King
Although earnings are undoubtedly valuable for assessing company performance, we believe cash is king because you can’t use accounting profits to pay the bills.
Ingredion has shown robust cash profitability, giving it an edge over its competitors and the ability to reinvest or return capital to investors. The company’s free cash flow margin averaged 9.8% over the last two years, quite impressive for a consumer staples business.
Taking a step back, we can see that Ingredion’s margin dropped by 7.1 percentage points over the last year. If its declines continue, it could signal increasing investment needs and capital intensity.
Ingredion burned through $77 million of cash in Q1, equivalent to a negative 4.3% margin. The company’s cash burn increased from $15 million of lost cash in the same quarter last year. These numbers deviate from its longer-term margin, indicating it is a seasonal business that must build up inventory during certain quarters.
Key Takeaways from Ingredion’s Q1 Results
We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its EBITDA missed and its gross margin fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 1.1% to $105.73 immediately after reporting.
The latest quarter from Ingredion’s wasn’t that good. One earnings report doesn’t define a company’s quality, though, so let’s explore whether the stock is a buy at the current price. The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
