Without this company, our laundry detergent would smell like cleaning fluid and our toothpaste taste like anti-freeze. International Flavors and Fragrances (NYSE: IFF) develops and manufactures the ingredients used in thousands of consumer products. The company is doing well, but you wouldn't know it by looking at its stock price.

It opened the year trading at $48.92, just about where it trades now, closing recently at $48.58, down $1.01 after reaching a high of $52.05 in mid-June. Part of the reason the stock is stuck is that IFF is thinly covered by analysts because it does not sell directly to consumers and has little name recognition.

Also, investors may be wary of any company that reports increasing interest expenses quarter after quarter. In the case of IFF, much of the interest expense increase is due to capital expenditures to build a new manufacturing facility in China, a market with huge growth potential for Western branded consumer products for which IFF will supply essential ingredients.

IIFF is in the midst of a stock repurchase program and recently authorized payment of a $0.21 per share dividend. Its P/E ratio is right at industry average, but the EPS is two and a half times industry average. The company devotes a lot of resources to R&D to track consumer tastes, literally. Such tracking is paying off handsomely in the company's increase in sales, net income and EPS quarter after quarter.

Continue reading International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) smells sweet

International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) smells sweet originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.