Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Has $326,000 Stock Position in Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) by 3.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,195 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 163 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Greif were worth $326,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Greif by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 372,040 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $21,381,000 after acquiring an additional 53,110 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its position in Greif by 12.3% during the second quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 262,058 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $15,061,000 after purchasing an additional 28,669 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Greif in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $4,012,000. Truist Financial Corp acquired a new position in Greif in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $452,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Greif by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,151 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after buying an additional 886 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GEF. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Greif in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Greif from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America lowered their price target on Greif from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Raymond James assumed coverage on shares of Greif in a research report on Friday, July 19th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $67.00 target price (down from $69.00) on shares of Greif in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $76.00.

Greif Price Performance

Shares of Greif stock opened at $69.14 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.03 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.21. Greif, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.95 and a 1-year high of $71.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.17 by ($0.14). The company had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 13.28% and a net margin of 4.99%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Greif, Inc. will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. This is an increase from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.96%.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.