Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Raises Dividend to $0.18 Per Share

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the conglomerate on Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Griffon has raised its dividend payment by an average of 17.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Griffon has a payout ratio of 13.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Griffon to earn $6.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF opened at $82.98 on Friday. Griffon has a one year low of $45.70 and a one year high of $83.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $68.69 and a 200 day moving average of $67.10. The firm has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 19.62 and a beta of 1.31.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $641.24 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Griffon will post 5.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Griffon

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 3,660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total value of $279,697.20. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,276,825.36. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Kevin F. Sullivan sold 9,222 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.50, for a total transaction of $696,261.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 41,168 shares in the company, valued at $3,108,184. The trade was a 18.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506 over the last 90 days. 16.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.