Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the four analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $89.25.

Several research firms have recently commented on GFF. Stephens boosted their target price on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In related news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $6,226,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,260,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $140,754,045.96. This trade represents a 4.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.97, for a total value of $1,874,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 712,914 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,447,162.58. This represents a 3.39 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 603,517 shares of company stock worth $42,818,506 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Griffon by 1.1% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,780 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,435,000 after acquiring an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Griffon by 3.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 877,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $61,463,000 after purchasing an additional 30,264 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Griffon by 25.1% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 161,438 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,300,000 after purchasing an additional 32,427 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd increased its position in Griffon by 79.6% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 12,658 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 5,609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Griffon by 11.9% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 16,301 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,141,000 after buying an additional 1,739 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Griffon stock opened at $82.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 19.61 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon has a 52 week low of $45.70 and a 52 week high of $83.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $69.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $67.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. Griffon’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Griffon will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. This is an increase from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.02%.

About Griffon

Griffon Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides consumer and professional, and home and building products in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Home and Building Products, and Consumer and Professional Products. The Home and Building Products segment manufactures and markets residential and commercial sectional garage doors, rolling steel service doors, fire doors, shutters, steel security grilles, and room dividers for the use in commercial construction and repair, and home remodeling applications.