Robert W. Baird Raises Griffon (NYSE:GFF) Price Target to $100.00

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from $92.00 to $100.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the conglomerate’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price target points to a potential upside of 23.03% from the company’s previous close.

GFF has been the subject of several other reports. Stephens upped their price objective on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. StockNews.com downgraded Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Four equities research 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.25.

Griffon Stock Performance

NYSE:GFF opened at $81.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $67.10. The company has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.22 and a beta of 1.31. 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 fifty-two week low of $45.70 and a fifty-two week high of $82.26.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The company’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Griffon will post 5.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total value of $6,226,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,260,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,754,045.96. This represents a 4.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kevin F. Sullivan sold 9,222 shares of the 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. The trade was a 18.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Griffon

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Griffon by 74.8% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 473,490 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $33,144,000 after acquiring an additional 202,685 shares in the last quarter. Lodge Hill Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Griffon by 190.3% in the second quarter. Lodge Hill Capital LLC now owns 251,700 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $16,074,000 after acquiring an additional 165,000 shares in the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ boosted its holdings in Griffon by 112.1% in the second quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 283,800 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $18,123,000 after acquiring an additional 150,000 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Griffon in the second quarter worth approximately $7,433,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Griffon by 120.6% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 164,555 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $11,519,000 after acquiring an additional 89,948 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

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.