Griffon (NYSE:GFF) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Buy

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Griffon (NYSE:GFF) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning.

Separately, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Griffon from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Griffon presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus price target of $80.33.

Griffon Stock Performance

NYSE GFF traded up $0.74 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $59.03. 580,091 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 434,103. The company has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.48 and a beta of 1.29. Griffon has a 12-month low of $38.33 and a 12-month high of $77.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $66.70 and a 200 day moving average of $67.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.56, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.80.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.31 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $647.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $688.94 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 90.02% and a net margin of 7.48%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 28th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Griffon

In other news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.88, for a total value of $869,440.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 48,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,851.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.07, for a total value of $6,707,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,500,746 shares in the company, valued at $167,725,034.22. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 13,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.88, for a total transaction of $869,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 48,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,851.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,903,377 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $432,954,000 after acquiring an additional 38,707 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Griffon by 1.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after acquiring an additional 19,644 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management boosted its position in Griffon by 486.0% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 911,295 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,834,000 after acquiring an additional 755,773 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Griffon by 9.6% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 631,851 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $40,350,000 after acquiring an additional 55,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 522,741 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $31,861,000 after acquiring an additional 2,131 shares during the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.