Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Short Interest Update

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) saw a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 598,400 shares, a growth of 8.3% from the October 15th total of 552,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 160,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days. Currently, 2.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Greif

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GEF. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in Greif by 24,865.2% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 5,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $396,000 after buying an additional 5,719 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in Greif by 4.6% during the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 5,616 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $388,000 after buying an additional 246 shares during the period. Mirova acquired a new position in Greif during the first quarter worth approximately $2,597,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its position in Greif by 133.9% during the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 13,047 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $902,000 after buying an additional 7,468 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Greif by 5.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,151 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,185,000 after buying an additional 886 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on GEF. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $67.00 price target (down previously from $69.00) on shares of Greif in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Greif from $77.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Greif from $80.00 to $76.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $76.00.

Greif Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GEF opened at $67.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.70. Greif has a fifty-two week low of $55.95 and a fifty-two week high of $71.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.16 billion, a PE ratio of 14.58 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $63.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.43.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last issued 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 analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Greif will post 4.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This is a positive change from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.96%.

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.