International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,150,000 shares, a growth of 16.7% from the September 30th total of 2,700,000 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,240,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On International Flavors & Fragrances

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pictet North America Advisors SA lifted its holdings in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pictet North America Advisors SA now owns 3,275 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $344,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Integrated Advisors Network LLC lifted its stake in International Flavors & Fragrances by 1.9% during the third quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 5,720 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $600,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its stake in International Flavors & Fragrances by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,540 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $686,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 2,471 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $236,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orca Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of International Flavors & Fragrances by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Orca Investment Management LLC now owns 21,266 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $2,231,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.02% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on IFF. Oppenheimer upped their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $116.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. 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 research note on Friday, September 6th. UBS Group lowered their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $107.00 to $103.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on International Flavors & Fragrances from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on International Flavors & Fragrances from $108.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, International Flavors & Fragrances presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $107.86.

International Flavors & Fragrances Stock Up 0.7 %

IFF stock opened at $102.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a 50-day moving average of $102.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $97.47. International Flavors & Fragrances has a 52-week low of $63.21 and a 52-week high of $106.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 2.38 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

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

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.