Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Short Interest Up 16.1% in November

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 695,000 shares, a growth of 16.1% from the October 31st total of 598,400 shares. Currently, 2.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 174,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Greif

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Greif by 71.9% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Greif during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $64,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Greif by 80.5% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,258 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 561 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Greif in the second quarter worth $80,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 27,766.7% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,666 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on GEF. Bank of America cut their price target on Greif from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Greif in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and set a $67.00 price objective (down from $69.00) on shares of Greif in a report on Friday, August 30th. Sidoti initiated coverage on Greif in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $93.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Greif from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Greif has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.40.

Greif Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE GEF traded up $0.23 on Friday, hitting $71.03. The stock had a trading volume of 99,257 shares, compared to its average volume of 190,872. Greif has a 52-week low of $55.95 and a 52-week high of $73.16. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $65.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $62.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.44 and a beta of 0.91.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.17 by ($0.14). Greif had a return on equity of 13.28% and a net margin of 4.99%. The business had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Greif will post 4.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Company Profile

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.