Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Receives $89.25 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the four research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $89.25.

GFF has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Stephens raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th.

Griffon Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of Griffon stock opened at $84.41 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.04 billion, a PE ratio of 20.00 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon has a twelve month low of $45.70 and a twelve month high of $86.73. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $69.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The company 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%. Griffon’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.19 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Griffon will post 5.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, November 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the conglomerate to purchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Griffon news, CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.10, for a total value of $880,055.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 199,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,203,342.80. The trade was a 6.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,260,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $140,754,045.96. This trade represents a 4.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 603,517 shares of company stock worth $42,818,506 in the last ninety days. 16.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GFF. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,903,377 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $432,954,000 after purchasing an additional 38,707 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 228.7% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 61,704 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,954,000 after purchasing an additional 42,934 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 659.0% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 30,466 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,946,000 after purchasing an additional 26,452 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 125.6% in the third quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 17,426 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,220,000 after purchasing an additional 9,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 353.3% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 15,123 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,109,000 after purchasing an additional 11,787 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

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.