Hennessy Advisors Inc. Has $9.98 Million Stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 140,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. owned about 0.29% of Griffon worth $9,978,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 228.7% in the 2nd 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. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 33.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 76,213 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,335,000 after purchasing an additional 19,291 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 125.6% in the 3rd 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. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $108,914,000 after purchasing an additional 61,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barington Capital Group L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. Barington Capital Group L.P. now owns 30,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,916,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 67,164 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.08, for a total value of $4,706,853.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,102,503 shares in the company, valued at $147,343,410.24. The trade was a 3.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 44,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,561,316.28. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 365,170 shares of company stock worth $27,178,746. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Griffon Stock Up 0.0 %

Griffon stock opened at $75.70 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 52-week low of $55.01 and a 52-week high of $86.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $76.23 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.75. The firm has a market cap of $3.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.90 and a beta of 1.43.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The firm had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Griffon announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.95%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GFF shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.25.

Griffon 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.