INTERNATIONAL FLAVORS & FRAGRANCES INC. $105 (New York symbol IFF; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 80.7 million; Market cap: $8.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.7; Dividend yield: 2.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.iff.com) makes over 36,000 compounds that improve the taste of food and the smell of consumer products.

IFF recently paid $311 million for Lucas Meyer Cosmetics, a Quebec-based company that supplies ingredients to makers of cosmetics and personal care products.

It also acquired Henry H. Ottens Manufacturing, a private Philadelphia-based firm that makes flavourings for major food makers. IFF paid $199.2 million for this business.

Expanding by acquisition is riskier than internal growth, but these are well-established companies with high-quality clientele. That cuts IFF’s risk. Excluding unusual items, such as costs to integrate these operations, IFF’s earnings fell 1.3% in the quarter ended June 30, 2015, to $111.0 million from $112.5 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings declined 0.7%, to $1.36 from $1.37, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales fell 2.6%, to $767.5 million from $788.4 million.

IFF gets 75% of its revenue from outside of North America. If you exclude the negative impact of the high U.S. dollar, sales rose 5% in the latest quarter, while earnings per share gained 10%.

The company ended the quarter with cash of $377.3 million. Its long-term debt of $989.2 million is a low 12% of its market cap.

Currency rates will continue to weigh on IFF’s growth, but its earnings should still rise 6.3%, to $5.40 a share, this year. The stock trades at 19.4 times that forecast, but IFF spends over 8% of its sales on research, so it’s more profitable than it appears.

It also recently raised its dividend by 19.1%. The new annual rate of $2.24 yields 2.1%.

IFF is a buy.