State Street Corp Has $108.91 Million Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 4.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 61,210 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 3.16% of Griffon worth $108,914,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GFF. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 386 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in Griffon during the second quarter worth approximately $55,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the second quarter worth approximately $70,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Griffon by 56.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Griffon by 1,024.8% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,136 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Stephens upped their price objective on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Griffon has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.25.

Griffon Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $78.49 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.60. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $54.74 and a 1 year high of $86.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The company has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.56 and a beta of 1.39.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. Griffon’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Griffon’s payout ratio is presently 17.02%.

Griffon announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 241,757 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $18,216,389.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,860,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,207,211.10. This represents a 11.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director James W. Sight sold 3,660 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total transaction of $279,697.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,276,825.36. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 474,622 shares of company stock valued at $34,819,512. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Profile

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.