Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Position Increased by Intech Investment Management LLC

Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 44.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,871 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,935 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Griffon were worth $1,811,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GFF. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 98.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management acquired a new stake in Griffon in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in Griffon during the 1st quarter valued at $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the second quarter worth $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 56.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF opened at $85.22 on Tuesday. Griffon Co. has a twelve month low of $45.70 and a twelve month high of $86.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $69.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.22. The company has a market capitalization of $4.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.15 and a beta of 1.31.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits 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 leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.84%. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s payout ratio is presently 14.18%.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In other news, SVP Seth L. Kaplan sold 4,844 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $339,080.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 198,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,899,970. This trade represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $6,226,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,260,746 shares in the company, valued at $140,754,045.96. This represents a 4.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506 over the last three months. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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