Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Sells 87,873 Shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. trimmed its holdings in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) by 87.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,327 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 87,873 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances were worth $1,042,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 25.7% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,489,741 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $464,926,000 after acquiring an additional 1,121,414 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 70.9% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 708,081 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $74,299,000 after purchasing an additional 293,760 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in International Flavors & Fragrances in the third quarter valued at about $22,399,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 1.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,467,517 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,102,363,000 after buying an additional 196,696 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances during the 3rd quarter worth about $19,813,000. 96.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Yuvraj Arora sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.75, for a total value of $458,750.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 3,238 shares in the company, valued at approximately $297,086.50. This represents a 60.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IFF has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $110.00 to $107.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on International Flavors & Fragrances from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays decreased their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $90.00 to $88.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Bank of America raised International Flavors & Fragrances from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $107.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.23.

International Flavors & Fragrances Price Performance

NYSE:IFF opened at $85.89 on Friday. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has a 52-week low of $72.94 and a 52-week high of $106.77. The company has a market cap of $21.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.93 and a current ratio of 2.62. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $95.18.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.46). International Flavors & Fragrances had a positive return on equity of 7.16% and a negative net margin of 20.33%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. will post 4.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 20th. International Flavors & Fragrances’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -17.60%.

International Flavors & Fragrances Company 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.