US Bancorp DE Raises Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 70.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,880 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 779 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Griffon were worth $132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 98.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Griffon during the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Griffon during the first quarter valued at approximately $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Griffon in the second quarter worth $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Griffon by 56.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Trading Down 4.6 %

Shares of NYSE GFF opened at $73.80 on Friday. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $44.71 and a 1 year high of $80.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.53 and a 200 day moving average of $66.82. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be given a $0.18 dividend. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 14.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 912 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.06, for a total transaction of $63,894.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 746,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,307,566.66. This trade represents a 0.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Seth L. Kaplan sold 4,844 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 198,571 shares in the company, valued at $13,899,970. This trade represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 606,742 shares of company stock worth $42,931,300 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GFF has been the subject of several research reports. Stephens upped their price objective on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Griffon from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $87.25.

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.