Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $78.67.

Several research analysts have recently commented on GEF shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Greif from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 target price on shares of Greif in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Sidoti began coverage on shares of Greif in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $93.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Greif from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Greif from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 30th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Greif

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP increased its stake in Greif by 71.9% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Greif during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in Greif by 80.5% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,258 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 561 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in Greif in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $80,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Greif by 27,766.7% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,666 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Greif Stock Down 1.1 %

GEF stock opened at $66.61 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $66.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.19. Greif has a 12 month low of $55.95 and a 12 month high of $73.16. The company has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.74, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.92.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 4.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Greif will post 4.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Greif Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.79%.

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.