Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Short Interest Update

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) saw a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, an increase of 9.8% from the December 31st total of 2,240,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 429,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.7 days. Currently, 6.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity

In other Griffon news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $415,564.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,561,316.28. This trade represents a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total transaction of $380,070.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,312 shares in the company, valued at $1,631,091.52. This represents a 18.90 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 365,170 shares of company stock worth $27,178,746. 10.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Griffon

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Griffon by 33.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 76,213 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,335,000 after buying an additional 19,291 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI lifted its holdings in Griffon by 125.6% during the third quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 17,426 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,220,000 after acquiring an additional 9,701 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Griffon by 4.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $108,914,000 after acquiring an additional 61,210 shares in the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new position in Griffon in the third quarter valued at about $2,089,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 21.4% in the third 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.

Griffon Trading Down 2.4 %

GFF stock traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $73.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 354,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 303,043. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74. Griffon has a 52 week low of $55.01 and a 52 week high of $86.73. The stock has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a PE ratio of 17.48 and a beta of 1.43.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced 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. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $641.24 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Griffon will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th were given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. This is an increase from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.02%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stephens raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 23rd.

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.