Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Position Reduced by Chesapeake Capital Corp IL

Chesapeake Capital Corp IL lowered its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 43.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,787 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,964 shares during the period. Chesapeake Capital Corp IL’s holdings in Griffon were worth $263,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 98.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the second quarter valued at $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the first quarter valued at $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the second quarter valued at $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 56.9% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GFF shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Griffon from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $87.25.

Griffon Trading Down 4.6 %

Griffon stock opened at $73.81 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74. Griffon Co. has a 12 month low of $44.71 and a 12 month high of $80.85. The stock has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Griffon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Griffon’s payout ratio is presently 14.18%.

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

Insider Activity at Griffon

In other Griffon news, CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.10, for a total transaction of $880,055.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 199,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,203,342.80. The trade was a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 241,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total transaction of $18,216,389.95. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,860,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,207,211.10. This represents a 11.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 606,742 shares of company stock valued at $42,931,300. Insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

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.