Everence Capital Management Inc. Sells 270 Shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Everence Capital Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 7.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,610 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 270 shares during the quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Griffon were worth $257,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GFF. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Griffon by 4.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $108,914,000 after acquiring an additional 61,210 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Griffon by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after purchasing an additional 19,644 shares during the period. 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 worth $61,463,000 after purchasing an additional 30,264 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 9.6% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 631,851 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $40,350,000 after buying an additional 55,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 7.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 519,926 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $36,395,000 after buying an additional 34,525 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total value of $415,564.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 44,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,561,316.28. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total value of $380,070.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,312 shares in the company, valued at $1,631,091.52. This represents a 18.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 372,614 shares of company stock valued at $27,700,272 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Trading Down 2.2 %

GFF opened at $70.65 on Wednesday. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $55.01 and a one 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.70 and a beta of 1.43.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $659.70 million during 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the conglomerate to repurchase up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.02%. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GFF shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Stephens increased their price objective on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.25.

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.