Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) COO Sells $1,874,250.00 in Stock

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.97, for a total value of $1,874,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 712,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,447,162.58. The trade was a 3.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Griffon Trading Down 4.6 %

GFF opened at $73.81 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $67.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.39. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $44.71 and a one year high of $80.85.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. Analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.18%.

Griffon declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GFF. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 877,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $61,463,000 after acquiring an additional 30,264 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 161,438 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $11,300,000 after acquiring an additional 32,427 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its position in shares of Griffon by 79.6% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 12,658 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $886,000 after acquiring an additional 5,609 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Griffon by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 16,301 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 1,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 348,907 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $24,423,000 after acquiring an additional 61,399 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GFF. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Griffon from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Stephens increased their target price on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Griffon has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.25.

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.