JPMorgan Chase & Co. Cuts Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 638,422 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 32,404 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned approximately 1.33% of Griffon worth $44,690,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Griffon by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 224,679 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,728,000 after purchasing an additional 9,417 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Griffon by 6.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,296 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,876,000 after purchasing an additional 1,767 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Griffon by 9.9% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 13,389 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $937,000 after buying an additional 1,211 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 97.2% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 30,957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,167,000 after buying an additional 15,258 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optimist Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Griffon in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $239,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Stock Up 1.3 %

Griffon stock opened at $72.87 on Monday. Griffon Co. has a 52 week low of $55.01 and a 52 week high of $86.73. The firm has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $74.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $69.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The company’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.02%.

Griffon declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the conglomerate to purchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GFF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Stephens increased their price objective on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $89.25.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 3,660 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total value of $279,697.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,825.36. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $415,564.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 44,306 shares in the company, valued at $3,561,316.28. The trade was a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 372,614 shares of company stock valued at $27,700,272 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 16.10% 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.