Insider Selling: Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Sells $279,697.20 in Stock

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director James W. Sight sold 3,660 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total value of $279,697.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 16,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,276,825.36. The trade was a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of GFF stock opened at $73.81 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon Co. has a one year low of $44.71 and a one year high of $80.85.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $659.70 million for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.19 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

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

Griffon declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Griffon

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Griffon by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,903,377 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $432,954,000 after purchasing an additional 38,707 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Griffon by 4.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $108,914,000 after purchasing an additional 61,210 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Griffon by 1.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after acquiring an additional 19,644 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 3.6% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 9.6% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 631,851 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $40,350,000 after acquiring an additional 55,100 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

About Griffon

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.