StockNews.com Upgrades Griffon (NYSE:GFF) to “Strong-Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Griffon (NYSE:GFF) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday.

GFF has been the topic of several other research reports. Stephens lifted their target price on 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 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 analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of GFF opened at $85.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66. Griffon has a 52-week low of $45.70 and a 52-week high of $86.73. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $69.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.22. The firm has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a PE ratio of 20.15 and a beta of 1.31.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The business had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Griffon will post 5.57 EPS 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 boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is 14.18%.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the conglomerate to repurchase up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Griffon news, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 25,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.97, for a total transaction of $1,874,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 712,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,447,162.58. This trade represents a 3.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kevin F. Sullivan sold 9,222 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.50, for a total value of $696,261.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 41,168 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,108,184. This trade represents a 18.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 603,517 shares of company stock worth $42,818,506 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP raised its position in Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new stake in Griffon during the 2nd quarter valued at about $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Griffon during the first quarter valued at approximately $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in Griffon in the 2nd quarter worth about $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

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.