Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $74.17.

Several analysts have commented on GEF shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Greif from $75.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Greif from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Greif from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd.

Greif Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GEF opened at $63.37 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Greif has a fifty-two week low of $48.23 and a fifty-two week high of $73.16.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. Greif had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 11.84%. Greif’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.82 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Greif will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.41%. Greif’s payout ratio is presently 60.85%.

Insider Activity

In other Greif news, CEO Ole G. Rosgaard sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.75, for a total transaction of $1,972,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 97,464 shares in the company, valued at $6,408,258. This represents a 23.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 7.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GEF. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. bought a new position in shares of Greif in the fourth quarter worth about $46,279,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Greif by 7,222.6% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 233,370 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $14,264,000 after buying an additional 230,183 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Greif by 54.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 366,449 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,015,000 after buying an additional 128,880 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in Greif in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $7,473,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Greif in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $4,219,000. Institutional investors own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.