Ticker: IFF, $73.43, -0.88% (as of May 9, 2025, 4:10 PM ET)
Disclaimer: We have no sense of smell. Just vibes.

🚨 Insider Alert: Someone Thinks It Smells Like Roses

CEO J. Erik Fyrwald and half the C-suite are buying like it’s Eau de Opportunity:

• May 8, 2025: +25,000 shares @ $73.97 = $1.85M

• March 4, 2025: +25,000 shares @ $80.24 = $2M

• Director Kevin O'Byrne: +6,500 shares @ $80.44 in March

That’s not a whiff—it’s a full-on inhalation. 💨💸

🆕 Update (May 24, 2025): Even More Insiders Just Sprayed Confidence
Since our last sniff, three more directors and an EVP have joined the buying spree:

• Kevin O'Byrne (Director): +4,500 shares @ $76.05

• Mehmood Khan (Director): +4,000 shares @ $75.33

• Margarita Palau-Hernandez (Director): +850 shares @ $77.42

• Stephen Landsman (EVP, GC): +12,000 shares @ $77.28

That’s $1.6M+ more insider buying in a single week. At this point, it's starting to smell like conviction. Or maybe just… opportunity. 🧴💰

🏛️ Wall Street's Got a Nose for It Too

Institutions own 95.96% of the float. Top sniffers include:

• Dodge & Cox: 12.29%

• Vanguard: 11.82%

• Freemont Capital: 9.92%

• BlackRock: 9.02%

• For more on institutional ownership re: IFF, check this out.

Also, short interest is a mere 1.96%. Not a lot of folks betting this one stinks. 🐻❌

📉 So... Why’s the Stock Still Trading at Half Its Former Glory?

IFF once flirted with $157 (2017). Today? Not even half that. So what’s holding it back?

• The dividend yield is 2%—meh.

• Free cash flow? Negative.

• Debt? Still high, but shrinking.

• Oh, and they just lost nearly $1B this quarter thanks to goodwill impairment.
  (Goodwill, ironically, doesn’t feel very good.) 😬

🧪 Financial Highlights: First Quarter 2025

• Revenue: $2.84B (down 2% reported, up 3% currency-neutral)

• Loss Before Taxes: –$994M (yup, a near-billion dollar stink bomb)

• Adjusted EBITDA: $578M (up 9%)

• Adjusted EPS: $1.20

• Reported EPS: –$3.98 🫣

• Free Cash Flow: –$52M (ouch)

• Net Debt / EBITDA: 3.9x

• Debt-to-Equity: 70.5% (not a dainty perfume spritz)

But the CEO says: “Smells like progress.”

For another CEO turned bullish on their company stock, 
Check this out.

🍬 The Segments: Some Smell Sweeter Than Others

👅 Taste

+7% sales growth, 22% EBITDA jump
🍽️ Translation: Still flavorful

🍗 Food Ingredients

–4% sales, but +5% EBITDA
🥩 Less protein demand, more price power

🧬 Health & Biosciences

+5% sales, +3% EBITDA
🧫 Slow but steady

🌸 Scent

+4% sales, +4% EBITDA
💐 Growth in Fine & Consumer Fragrances = promising nose

💊 Pharma Solutions

+8% sales, +19% EBITDA
💊 Strong margins, early divestiture

📊 Guidance: Cautious Optimism (Sprayed Lightly)

• Sales: $10.6B–$10.9B

• Adjusted EBITDA: $2.0B–$2.15B

• Sales growth (currency-neutral): +1% to +4%

• EBITDA growth: +5% to +10%

🚫 Caveats:
FX drag, early Pharma divestiture, and the usual "can't reconcile guidance due to unknown variables" footnote.

🐂 The Bull Case

✅ Massive insider and institutional buy-in
✅ Core segments showing momentum
✅ Adjusted EBITDA actually rising
✅ Forward P/E of 17.43—not bad for a reboot

🐻 The Bear Case

❗ Lost nearly a billion this quarter
❗ Free cash flow’s still in the red
❗ Dividend may be a luxury
❗ Growth is modest and debt is sticky

🧠 Verdict: Smell Test... Passed?

IFF isn’t out of the woods—or the fog of restructuring—but signs point to a potential rebound. The insiders are betting on a sweet future, the institutions are holding steady, and the bears… well, they’ve mostly left the room.

This could still go sideways, but it might just be the start of a fresh new blend. If things go great, things go great. If they don’t? At least you'll know you sniffed it early.

Sniff responsibly. 🧴💼

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