Arizona State Retirement System Decreases Stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Arizona State Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,449 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 767 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Griffon were worth $698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $730,000 after purchasing an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments increased its holdings in Griffon by 2.0% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 28,419 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,127,000 after buying an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its position in shares of Griffon by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 41,660 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $856,000 after acquiring an additional 594 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Griffon by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 23,883 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $855,000 after acquiring an additional 604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Griffon by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 758 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Griffon Stock Down 0.0 %

GFF opened at $65.24 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.68 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.19. Griffon Co. has a 52 week low of $25.97 and a 52 week high of $75.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

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

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.92%. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 44.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.