Insider Selling: Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) CFO Sells 13,314 Shares of Stock

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.10, for a total value of $880,055.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 199,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,203,342.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Griffon Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $67.61 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.71. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $66.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.37. Griffon Co. has a 12-month low of $38.33 and a 12-month high of $77.99.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.31 by ($0.07). Griffon had a return on equity of 96.05% and a net margin of 7.27%. The company had revenue of $647.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $688.94 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.29 earnings per share. Griffon’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 4.87 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. Griffon’s payout ratio is 15.83%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Griffon by 0.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,903,377 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $432,954,000 after acquiring an additional 38,707 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Griffon by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after purchasing an additional 19,644 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in Griffon by 486.0% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 911,295 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,834,000 after purchasing an additional 755,773 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Griffon by 9.6% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 631,851 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $40,350,000 after buying an additional 55,100 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Griffon by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 522,741 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $31,861,000 after buying an additional 2,131 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GFF. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Griffon from $86.00 to $84.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $85.00 price target on shares of Griffon in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $81.50.

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.