Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Shares Purchased by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 112.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 283,800 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 150,000 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ owned about 0.57% of Griffon worth $18,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon during the second quarter worth $1,145,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 64.5% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 5,380 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 2,110 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 388.3% during the second quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 31,381 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,004,000 after purchasing an additional 24,954 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 228.7% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 61,704 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,954,000 after purchasing an additional 42,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon during the second quarter worth $2,716,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Griffon

In other Griffon news, SVP Seth L. Kaplan sold 4,844 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was 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 directly owns 2,260,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $140,754,045.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Seth L. Kaplan sold 4,844 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $339,080.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 198,571 shares in the company, valued at $13,899,970. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 168,799 shares of company stock valued at $10,825,347 over the last three months. 16.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GFF. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Griffon from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Griffon in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Griffon presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $81.50.

Griffon Trading Down 3.0 %

Shares of GFF opened at $67.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.91 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.35. Griffon Co. has a twelve month low of $38.33 and a twelve month high of $77.99.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.31 by ($0.07). Griffon had a return on equity of 96.05% and a net margin of 7.27%. The firm had revenue of $647.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $688.94 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 4.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 28th were given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 28th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.83%.

Griffon Company Profile

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.