Griffon (NYSE:GFF) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

GFF has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Stephens boosted their price target on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.25.

Griffon Stock Performance

Shares of GFF stock opened at $82.98 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.10. 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 stock has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 19.62 and a beta of 1.31. Griffon has a 1 year low of $45.70 and a 1 year high of $83.76.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The business’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, 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 value of $696,261.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 41,168 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,108,184. This represents a 18.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total value of $6,226,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,260,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,754,045.96. This represents a 4.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 603,517 shares of company stock worth $42,818,506 over the last quarter. 16.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GFF. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 38,707 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Griffon by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $108,914,000 after buying an additional 61,210 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Griffon by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,379,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $88,066,000 after buying an additional 19,644 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 877,840 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $61,463,000 after buying an additional 30,264 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of Griffon by 9.6% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Company Profile

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.