Easterly Investment Partners LLC Acquires 69,649 Shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF - Free Report) by 557.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 82,149 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock after buying an additional 69,649 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC's holdings in International Flavors & Fragrances were worth $6,376,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in International Flavors & Fragrances by 179.9% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 655 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 421 shares during the period. Quarry LP bought a new stake in International Flavors & Fragrances in the fourth quarter valued at about $78,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in International Flavors & Fragrances in the first quarter valued at about $77,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in International Flavors & Fragrances by 48.5% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,534 shares of the specialty chemicals company's stock valued at $119,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional acquired a new position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances during the first quarter worth approximately $138,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.02% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at International Flavors & Fragrances

In related news, Director Mehmood Khan acquired 4,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $75.33 per share, for a total transaction of $301,320.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 4,604 shares in the company, valued at approximately $346,819.32. The trade was a 662.25% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Hernandez Margarita Palau acquired 850 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $77.42 per share, for a total transaction of $65,807.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,393 shares of the company's stock, valued at $185,266.06. This trade represents a 55.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders purchased 22,050 shares of company stock valued at $1,688,512. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on IFF. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on International Flavors & Fragrances from $100.00 to $98.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $82.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Barclays upgraded shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $76.00 to $84.00 in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $110.00 to $100.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of International Flavors & Fragrances from $105.00 to $91.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $93.43.

International Flavors & Fragrances Stock Performance

Shares of IFF traded up $0.98 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $76.01. 1,531,369 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,541,985. International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. has a 1-year low of $65.85 and a 1-year high of $106.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.87. The stock has a market cap of $19.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -23.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.04. The stock's fifty day moving average is $75.93 and its 200 day moving average is $78.49.

International Flavors & Fragrances (NYSE:IFF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $2.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. International Flavors & Fragrances had a negative net margin of 7.31% and a positive return on equity of 7.99%. The company's revenue was down 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

International Flavors & Fragrances Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 20th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 20th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.10%. International Flavors & Fragrances's payout ratio is presently -48.93%.

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.