Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the conglomerate on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%.

Griffon has increased its dividend payment by an average of 24.1% per year over the last three years. Griffon has a payout ratio of 11.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Griffon to earn $6.39 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.3%.

Griffon Stock Up 9.8 %

Shares of Griffon stock traded up $7.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $81.58. The company had a trading volume of 70,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 300,915. The company has a 50 day moving average of $76.14 and a 200 day moving average of $70.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.70 and a beta of 1.43. Griffon has a 52-week low of $55.01 and a 52-week high of $86.73.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.11. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. On average, equities analysts predict that Griffon will post 5.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 67,164 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 2,102,503 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $147,343,410.24. This represents a 3.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total transaction of $380,070.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,312 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,631,091.52. This represents a 18.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 365,170 shares of company stock worth $27,178,746 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on GFF. StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 23rd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Stephens boosted their target price 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 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.