Vontobel Holding Ltd. Takes $313,000 Position in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 5,128 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $313,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Griffon by 2.3% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Griffon by 1.1% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 94,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,741,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Griffon by 31.1% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,265 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in shares of Griffon by 18.2% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 12,434 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $493,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Griffon by 10.1% during the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 32,801 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,301,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the 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 directly owns 18,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Raymond James upped 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $69.50.

Griffon Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of GFF stock opened at $69.07 on Wednesday. Griffon Co. has a 52-week low of $27.45 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.46. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.03. The company has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.78%.

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.