Arizona State Retirement System Cuts Position in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Arizona State Retirement System lowered its holdings in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,449 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 767 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Griffon were worth $698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon in the first quarter valued at about $299,000. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Griffon by 92.4% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 50,061 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,003,000 after buying an additional 24,040 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Griffon by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 19,172 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $384,000 after buying an additional 2,745 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Griffon by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 41,892 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $839,000 after buying an additional 4,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 54.7% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 26,692 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $535,000 after acquiring an additional 9,437 shares during the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on GFF. StockNews.com cut Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.50.

Griffon Price Performance

Griffon stock opened at $65.24 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.46, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02. The stock has a market cap of $3.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.68 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $69.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $57.19. Griffon Co. has a 12-month low of $25.97 and a 12-month high of $75.18.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $643.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $595.87 million. Griffon had a net margin of 2.65% and a return on equity of 72.80%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Griffon Co. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total transaction of $134,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,269,641.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate 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.