First Eagle Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Position in International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) by 31.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,769 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 1,150 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC’s holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances were worth $454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in IFF. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,778,678 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $410,919,000 after purchasing an additional 344,377 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 4,011,307 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $381,917,000 after purchasing an additional 80,558 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 2,375,699 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $192,360,000 after purchasing an additional 33,548 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 9.4% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,895,581 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $163,003,000 after purchasing an additional 162,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 7.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,756,438 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $167,244,000 after purchasing an additional 123,693 shares in the last quarter. 96.02% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IFF has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $107.00 to $103.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Mizuho upgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $109.00 to $120.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $115.00 in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $102.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, International Flavors & Fragrances has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $103.87.

International Flavors & Fragrances Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:IFF opened at $102.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has a 52-week low of $62.28 and a 52-week high of $105.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $99.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.72. The company has a market capitalization of $26.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 1.22.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.15. International Flavors & Fragrances had a negative net margin of 20.82% and a positive return on equity of 6.63%. The company had revenue of $2.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. International Flavors & Fragrances’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 20th will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 20th. International Flavors & Fragrances’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -16.38%.

International Flavors & Fragrances Profile

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cosmetic active and natural health ingredients for use in various consumer products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Nourish, Health & Biosciences, Scent, and Pharma Solutions.