Wintrust Investments LLC Buys 7,576 Shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF)

Wintrust Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) by 92.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,784 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,576 shares during the quarter. Wintrust Investments LLC’s holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances were worth $1,256,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in International Flavors & Fragrances by 26.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,374,991 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,240,654,000 after buying an additional 2,835,689 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 59.2% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,772,700 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $814,890,000 after purchasing an additional 2,890,737 shares during the period. Sachem Head Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Sachem Head Capital Management LP now owns 6,684,539 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $614,710,000 after purchasing an additional 238,300 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,274,530 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $483,953,000 after buying an additional 116,338 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,876,979 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $382,453,000 after buying an additional 446,524 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on IFF. Credit Suisse Group lowered their price objective on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $110.00 to $95.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $83.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Barclays lowered their price target on International Flavors & Fragrances from $60.00 to $57.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 12th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on International Flavors & Fragrances from $102.00 to $82.00 in a report on Thursday, August 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.27.

International Flavors & Fragrances Stock Performance

NYSE IFF opened at $74.00 on Thursday. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has a 1-year low of $62.11 and a 1-year high of $118.34. The company has a 50 day moving average of $67.89 and a 200-day moving average of $74.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $18.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 411.11, a PEG ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 1.16.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $2.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.76 billion. International Flavors & Fragrances had a return on equity of 5.22% and a net margin of 0.40%. The business’s revenue was down 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.36 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.38%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 27th. International Flavors & Fragrances’s dividend payout ratio is currently 1,800.00%.

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 Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Greater Asia, North America, and Latin America. It operates through four segments: Nourish, Scent, Health & Biosciences, and Pharma Solutions.