Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Sells $70,109.43 in Stock

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 2,617 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.79, for a total value of $70,109.43. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 24,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $658,471.41. This represents a 9.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Victor Eugene Renuart also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, November 26th, Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of Griffon stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total value of $380,070.00.

Griffon Stock Performance

Shares of Griffon stock traded up $0.79 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $84.30. 205,642 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 439,414. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $70.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $45.70 and a one year high of $86.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

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

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is an increase from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

Griffon announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the conglomerate to repurchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GFF. Stephens boosted their target price on 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 target price on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.25.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GFF. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Griffon during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Griffon during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of Griffon during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 56.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Griffon Company 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.