Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Sells $75,023.00 in Stock

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 2,900 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.87, for a total value of $75,023.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 27,196 shares in the company, valued at $703,560.52. This trade represents a 9.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

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 Trading Up 0.9 %

GFF stock opened at $84.30 on Monday. Griffon Co. has a twelve month low of $45.70 and a twelve month high of $86.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.63.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 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 company had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.85%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.02%.

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

Institutional Trading of Griffon

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its stake in Griffon by 4.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $108,914,000 after purchasing an additional 61,210 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Griffon by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after buying an additional 19,644 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Griffon by 3.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 877,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $61,463,000 after buying an additional 30,264 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 9.6% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 631,851 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $40,350,000 after acquiring an additional 55,100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 34,525 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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