Thank you for standing by. Hello and welcome to Ingredion Incorporated's annual meeting. I would now like to turn the call over to our Chairman of the Board, Mr. Greg Kenny. Mr. Kenny, please go ahead.
Thank you and good morning, everyone. I want to welcome everyone to Ingredion Incorporated's 2025 annual stockholder meeting. We appreciate your attendance, your interest in, and most importantly, your support of Ingredion. I hereby call this meeting to order. We decided to hold the 2025 annual meeting in a virtual format as we believe it facilitates stockholder access by enabling stockholders to participate equally from any location around the world. At this time, I'd like to introduce you to Jim Zallie, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Ingredion Incorporated. Jim will be leading us through the annual meeting. Jim.
Thank you, Greg, and good morning to all of the stockholders and guests who have joined us today. In 2024, we reorganized our business into three new segments: Texture and Healthful Solutions, Food and Industrial Ingredients Latam, and Food and Industrial Ingredients US Canada. Each was specifically designed to closely align with the strategic value drivers of our business. Our new structure enhances customer service and engagement while improving our focus on growing market opportunities, all while providing greater stockholder transparency. We have seen the initial benefits of our reorganization during our first year. We saw sales volume and operational excellence drive strong profit growth and margin expansion in 2024. Although we experienced reductions in pricing as we passed through lower raw material costs to customers, these reductions were offset by strong sales volume growth from Texture and Healthful Solutions.
These factors collectively led to a year-over-year increase of 5% in adjusted operating income and an increase of 8% when taking into account the sale of our South Korea business in early 2024. Reported and adjusted earnings per share grew to $9.71 and $10.65, respectively. Additionally, cash from operations exceeded $1.4 billion, and we returned $426 million to our stockholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases. Our global reorganization improves our focus on growing market opportunities and serving customers, providing greater insight for our stockholders. Our ability to achieve this successful transformation owes much to our more than 11,000 employees worldwide. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their dedication and creativity. I would also like to thank our stockholders for their continued trust in Ingredion and extend my appreciation to our Board of Directors for their guidance and support.
Our record performance in 2024 demonstrated the clarity of our strategy and the impact of our execution. We look forward to extending these gains even further in 2025. As you can see on your screen, in addition to myself, the presenters at today's annual meeting are Greg Kenny, our Chairman of the Board, and Tanya Jaeger de Foras , Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Corporate Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer. All of our Board of Directors and all of the members of our executive leadership team are in attendance at today's meeting. In addition, we are joined by representatives from KPMG, our independent registered public accounting firm. They will be available at the end of the meeting to answer questions during the general question and answer session. Finally, also present today is Cheryl Niebeling of Broadridge Financial Solutions, who is the Meetings Inspector of Election.
The agenda for this meeting is presently on the screen. It is also available to view at any time through the appropriate link on the virtual annual meeting website. As a general housekeeping matter, during this meeting, when I refer to people attending this meeting as a stockholder, it means stockholders that have logged in to the virtual annual meeting website using their 16-digit control number. In order to conduct an orderly meeting, we will follow the rules of meeting conduct, a copy of which is available to view at any time through the appropriate link on the virtual annual meeting website. Tanya, could you please update us as to whether a quorum is present at this meeting?
Yes, thank you, Jim. Based upon the information provided to me by our Inspector of Election, there were a total of 64,299,712 shares of common stock outstanding on March 24, 2025, which was the record date for this meeting. The holders of at least 57,639,278 shares of common stock, or 89.6% of the voting power of the outstanding shares, are present by proxy or in person at this meeting. Accordingly, we have a quorum of stockholders in attendance for this meeting.
Thank you, Tanya. With respect to voting procedures, many stockholders have voted in advance of this meeting. Stockholders who have already voted on the internet, by telephone, or by mail do not need to take any further action with respect to any of the matters to be voted on today. Your vote has already been counted. To the extent described in our 2025 proxy statement, people attending this meeting as a stockholder may vote or change their vote during this meeting using the appropriate link on the virtual annual meeting website. People attending this meeting as a stockholder may ask questions during this meeting using the appropriate link on the virtual annual meeting website. They were also able to submit questions to Ingredion in advance of this meeting. We will proceed through the meeting agenda in order.
Questions about specific agenda items may be addressed while the relevant item is being considered. In addition, there will be a general question and answer session at the end of the meeting once the meeting of the business has been concluded. The procedures for questions and answers are described in our rules of meeting conduct. We will post a summary of all questions and answers relating to the annual meeting on the Investor Relations section of our website. Now that we have covered the introductory topics for the meeting, I hereby declare the polls to be open. The polls will close immediately prior to the adjournment of this meeting. Tanya, please take us through the items on the meeting agenda.
Thank you again, Jim. The first item of business is the election of directors. As can be seen on the screen, the 11 people named in the 2025 proxy statement are nominated to serve as the company's directors, each to hold office for a term to expire in May 2026, or until their respective successor has been elected and qualified.
Thank you. If you are attending this meeting as a stockholder and would like to discuss something related to Proposal One, please submit your question now via the virtual annual meeting website. If there is no discussion, I hereby declare the nominations closed, and we will move on to the next item of business.
The second item of business is the advisory vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers, as disclosed in the company's 2025 proxy statement.
Thank you. If you are attending this meeting as a stockholder and would like to discuss something related to Proposal Two, please submit your question now via the virtual annual meeting website. If there is no discussion, we will move on to the next item of business.
The final item of business is the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the independent registered public accounting firm of Ingredion for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025. A representative of KPMG is in attendance at this meeting. He will be available to answer questions during the general question and answer period.
Thank you. If you are attending this meeting as a stockholder and would like to discuss something related to Proposal Three, please submit your question now via the virtual annual meeting website. If there is no discussion, we will move on to voting. Stockholders who have already voted on the internet, by telephone, or by mail need not take any further action with respect to any of the matters to be voted on today. Your vote has already been counted. If any people attending this meeting as a stockholder wish to vote or to change a prior vote to the extent permitted, as described in our 2025 proxy statement, please do so now using the appropriate link on the virtual annual meeting website. Let us proceed to the next item on the agenda, which is the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election.
Any proper votes submitted before the polls closed that are not reflected in the preliminary report will be included in the Inspector's final report. Tanya, could you please present the preliminary report from the Inspector of Election?
Yes, Jim. The Inspector of Election has determined that more than a majority of the votes cast were in favor of the election of each of the 11 director nominees named in our 2025 proxy statement. In addition, more than a majority of shares present by proxy or in person at this meeting were also cast in favor of the Say On Pay advisory vote, as well as the ratification of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year 2025.
Thank you, Tanya. Based upon the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election, I hereby declare that all three agenda items have passed. With respect to any other business to be brought before this meeting, I note that the applicable deadlines have passed and that no other items of business have been proposed to be discussed at this meeting. Therefore, this concludes the business of the annual meeting, and I hereby declare the polls to be closed. The 2025 annual stockholder meeting is hereby adjourned. At this time, I would be pleased to take your general questions if there are any. If you are attending this meeting as a stockholder, please submit any questions now via the virtual annual meeting website. If there are no further questions, thank you for attending today's annual stockholder meeting, and thank you for your continued support of Ingredion.