Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Sells 10,274 Shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC reduced its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,362 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 10,274 shares during the quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC owned about 0.12% of Griffon worth $4,159,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GFF. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its stake in shares of Griffon by 5.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 3,487 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $244,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Optimist Retirement Group LLC increased its position in Griffon by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 3,592 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $256,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the period. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Griffon by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,780 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,435,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the period. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new position in Griffon during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank increased its position in Griffon by 4.4% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 11,954 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $837,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GFF. Loop Capital raised shares of Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective (up previously from $92.00) on shares of Griffon in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective 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 raised their price target on Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $98.75.

Griffon Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of GFF opened at $77.32 on Tuesday. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $55.01 and a one year high of $86.73. The company has a market cap of $3.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.78 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.21.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.11. Griffon had a return on equity of 120.61% and a net margin of 9.13%. Research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is 14.69%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Griffon news, Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total value of $380,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,312 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,631,091.52. This trade represents a 18.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Cheryl L. Turnbull sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.80, for a total value of $242,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,482,984. This represents a 8.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,670 shares of company stock worth $1,038,035 in the last three months. 10.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.