Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. Grows Stock Position in International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. $IFF

Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. grew its position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) by 0.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 284,423 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the quarter. International Flavors & Fragrances accounts for 1.5% of Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd.’s holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances were worth $20,919,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in IFF. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 122.1% in the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 5,441,094 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $400,192,000 after purchasing an additional 2,991,405 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox boosted its stake in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 7.4% in the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 33,774,607 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,621,247,000 after buying an additional 2,336,844 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in International Flavors & Fragrances during the first quarter worth $57,324,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 15.3% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,992,437 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $232,243,000 after acquiring an additional 397,327 shares during the period. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 63.5% during the 1st quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 929,069 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $72,105,000 after purchasing an additional 360,870 shares in the last quarter. 96.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IFF has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on International Flavors & Fragrances from $96.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on International Flavors & Fragrances from $92.00 to $90.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $85.02.

International Flavors & Fragrances Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:IFF opened at $62.79 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $16.08 billion, a P/E ratio of -40.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.04. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has a 52-week low of $59.14 and a 52-week high of $92.39. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $63.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.02.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.65 billion. International Flavors & Fragrances had a negative net margin of 3.48% and a positive return on equity of 7.95%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.04 EPS. International Flavors & Fragrances has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 19th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 19th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. International Flavors & Fragrances’s payout ratio is -98.77%.

International Flavors & Fragrances Profile

International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc engages in the manufacture and supply of flavors and fragrances used in the food, beverage, personal care, and household products industries. It operates through the following segments: Nourish, Health & Biosciences, Scent and Pharma Solutions. The Nourish segment consists of legacy Taste segment combined with N&B’s Food & Beverage division and the food protection business of N&B’s Health & Biosciences division.