Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $79.40.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on GEF shares. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $67.00 target price (down previously from $69.00) on shares of Greif in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Greif from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Greif from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Sidoti started coverage on Greif in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $93.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Greif in a research note on Monday, August 26th.

Greif Price Performance

GEF opened at $69.83 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $63.78 and a 200-day moving average of $62.51. Greif has a 1-year low of $55.95 and a 1-year high of $71.36. The company has a market capitalization of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.18 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.70.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.17 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. Greif had a net margin of 4.99% and a return on equity of 13.28%. Equities analysts expect that Greif will post 4.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Greif’s payout ratio is presently 46.96%.

Institutional Trading of Greif

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quarry LP boosted 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 acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Greif in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $64,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its stake in Greif by 80.5% in 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 shares of Greif during the second quarter valued at about $80,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Greif by 27,766.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 1,666 shares during the last quarter. 45.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.