International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) Short Interest Update

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) saw a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,950,000 shares, an increase of 9.6% from the March 15th total of 6,340,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.0 days. Currently, 3.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on IFF. UBS Group upped their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Argus lowered International Flavors & Fragrances from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised International Flavors & Fragrances from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $73.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, January 12th. StockNews.com raised International Flavors & Fragrances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on International Flavors & Fragrances from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.35.

International Flavors & Fragrances Price Performance

Shares of IFF stock traded up $0.37 on Wednesday, reaching $82.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,656,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,084,483. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. International Flavors & Fragrances has a 12-month low of $62.11 and a 12-month high of $97.49. The company has a market capitalization of $21.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.26, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.15.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $2.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.70 billion. International Flavors & Fragrances had a positive return on equity of 5.09% and a negative net margin of 22.36%. The company’s revenue was down 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that International Flavors & Fragrances will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 22nd were paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 21st. International Flavors & Fragrances’s dividend payout ratio is presently -15.94%.

Institutional Trading of International Flavors & Fragrances

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fairfield Bush & CO. boosted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 4,791 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $629,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 19.8% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,380 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $444,000 after buying an additional 558 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 10.9% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 5,844 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $767,000 after buying an additional 574 shares during the period. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 3,792 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $498,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 31.5% during the 1st quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 3,684 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $483,000 after buying an additional 883 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.02% of the company’s stock.

International Flavors & Fragrances Company 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.