Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Stock Position Lifted by Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 229,497 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 28,731 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC’s holdings in Griffon were worth $16,065,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP lifted its stake in Griffon by 98.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the second quarter valued at $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon during the 1st quarter valued at $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the 2nd quarter worth $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 56.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Griffon

In other Griffon news, CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.10, for a total value of $880,055.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 199,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,203,342.80. The trade was a 6.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $6,226,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,260,746 shares in the company, valued at $140,754,045.96. This represents a 4.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506. 16.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stephens raised 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Griffon presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

Griffon Stock Up 4.3 %

GFF stock opened at $79.34 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $68.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.00. The company has a market cap of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.76 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon Co. has a 12-month low of $45.70 and a 12-month high of $80.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. Griffon’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

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.