Greif (NYSE:GEF) Shares Break Above 50-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF)’s stock price passed above its 50 day moving average during trading on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $82.93 and traded as high as $83.50. Greif shares last traded at $83.1280, with a volume of 206,741 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GEF has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial raised Greif from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Greif from a “hold (c)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Greif from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Greif from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.40.

Greif Trading Down 0.2%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.79, a PEG ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.77.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 7.53%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Greif, Inc. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 77.74%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total transaction of $163,640.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 51,832 shares in the company, valued at $4,240,894.24. This trade represents a 3.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Bala Sathyanarayanan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.67, for a total transaction of $109,670.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 7,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $827,898.83. This trade represents a 11.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 98,987 shares of company stock worth $8,661,538. Corporate insiders own 7.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Greif by 35.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 246,492 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,361,000 after acquiring an additional 63,843 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Greif by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,099,000 after purchasing an additional 5,071 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its position in shares of Greif by 29.1% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 36,906 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,749,000 after purchasing an additional 8,322 shares in the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its position in shares of Greif by 362.2% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 31,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,362,000 after acquiring an additional 24,846 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 10.8% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 27,528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,694 shares during the period. 45.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Greif

Greif, Inc is a global producer of industrial and paper packaging products and related services. The company manufactures and supplies fiber, steel and plastic drums; intermediate bulk containers; containerboard; corrugated sheets and products; and other packaging solutions for customers in a range of industries.

Greif also provides packaging lifecycle services, including container reconditioning, recycling, logistics and related customer support. Its products are used to package and transport food and beverage ingredients, chemicals, petroleum products, agricultural materials, pharmaceuticals and other industrial goods.

Founded in 1877 as a cooperage business, Greif has expanded into a multinational packaging company serving customers across North America, Europe and other international markets.