Bank of America Cuts Greif (NYSE:GEF) Price Target to $73.00

Greif (NYSE:GEF) had its price target decreased by Bank of America from $79.00 to $73.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Greif from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Sidoti assumed coverage on shares of Greif in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $93.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Greif from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.33.

Greif Price Performance

NYSE GEF opened at $60.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.53. Greif has a 52-week low of $55.95 and a 52-week high of $73.16. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.10. The stock has a market cap of $2.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.43, a PEG ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.92.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.23). The company had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 11.85% and a net margin of 4.81%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Greif will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Greif Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.56%. Greif’s payout ratio is 47.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Greif news, Director B Andrew Rose purchased 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $70.20 per share, with a total value of $245,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,500 shares in the company, valued at $245,700. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Lawrence A. Hilsheimer acquired 550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $67.88 per share, for a total transaction of $37,334.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 162,151 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,006,809.88. This trade represents a 0.34 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have bought 6,225 shares of company stock valued at $431,731. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GEF. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Greif by 59.2% during the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 753,812 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,321,000 after purchasing an additional 280,330 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Greif by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 540,330 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $31,053,000 after buying an additional 80,754 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Greif during the 2nd quarter worth about $4,012,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Greif by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 372,040 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $21,381,000 after buying an additional 53,110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Greif by 450.3% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 56,430 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,243,000 after acquiring an additional 46,176 shares during the period. 45.74% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.