Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Victor Eugene Renuart Sells 2,617 Shares

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 2,617 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.79, for a total value of $70,109.43. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 24,579 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $658,471.41. The trade was a 9.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Victor Eugene Renuart also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, November 26th, Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of Griffon stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total transaction of $380,070.00.

Griffon Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Griffon stock opened at $84.30 on Monday. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $45.70 and a 1 year high of $86.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.44. The company has a 50-day moving average of $70.62 and a 200 day moving average of $67.63. The firm has a market cap of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93 and a beta of 1.31.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Griffon

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP increased its stake in Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Griffon during the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the first quarter valued at approximately $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the second quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Griffon by 56.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GFF. Stephens boosted their price target on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $89.25.

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.