Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Decreases Stock Position in Griffon Corporation $GFF

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its holdings in shares of Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) by 3.5% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,011,360 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 37,006 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Griffon were worth $73,501,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Scarborough Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Griffon in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. SEB Asset Management AB purchased a new position in shares of Griffon during the 1st quarter worth approximately $21,070,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Griffon by 68.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 391,441 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $28,450,000 after purchasing an additional 158,592 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its position in shares of Griffon by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 3,959 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $288,000 after purchasing an additional 442 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its stake in Griffon by 8.6% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 22,914 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,665,000 after buying an additional 1,807 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Robert W. Baird set a $115.00 price objective on Griffon in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Griffon from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Griffon from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.00.

Griffon Stock Down 1.6%

GFF opened at $86.45 on Friday. Griffon Corporation has a 12 month low of $65.01 and a 12 month high of $98.36. The business has a 50-day moving average of $90.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $85.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.77, a current ratio of 2.86 and a quick ratio of 2.43. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 665.07 and a beta of 1.41.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.06. Griffon had a net margin of 0.31% and a return on equity of 298.42%. The business had revenue of $421.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $414.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 31.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Griffon Corporation will post 5.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is 676.92%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.92, for a total transaction of $9,492,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,784,297 shares in the company, valued at $169,365,471.24. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 7,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.02, for a total value of $755,965.46. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 790,352 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,889,599.04. The trade was a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 129,389 shares of company stock worth $12,309,525. 10.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Griffon Profile

Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) is a diversified management and holding company whose subsidiaries design, manufacture and market products for residential, commercial and defense applications. Operating through three primary platforms—Home & Building Products, Defense Electronics and Specialty Industrial—Griffon’s portfolio spans consumer and industrial brands with a focus on long-lived products and recurring aftermarket opportunities.

In the Home & Building Products segment, Griffon’s Clopay Building Products division is a leading North American manufacturer of residential and commercial garage doors, specializing in steel, fiberglass and composite designs as well as decorative carriage-house styles.