Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Shares Sold by Nisa Investment Advisors LLC

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 60.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,232 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 3,400 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Griffon were worth $136,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GFF. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Griffon in the 1st quarter worth approximately $299,000. Raymond James & Associates increased 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 period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Griffon by 16.7% in 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 during the period. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in Griffon by 13.0% in 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 during the period. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Griffon by 54.7% in the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 26,692 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $535,000 after purchasing an additional 9,437 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 18,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $65.97 on Friday. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $25.97 and a 1 year high of $75.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.23 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $69.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.50.

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

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.91%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.78%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GFF has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James upped their price objective on 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 lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Griffon presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $69.50.

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.