Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $646,000 Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB reduced its holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 24.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 10,600 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 3,500 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Griffon were worth $646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Griffon by 2.3% in the third quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after purchasing an additional 758 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in Griffon by 1.1% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in shares of Griffon by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,327 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $447,000 after acquiring an additional 1,062 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Griffon by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,265 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares during the period. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. boosted its position in shares of Griffon by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 12,434 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $493,000 after purchasing an additional 1,916 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GFF. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company 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 research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.50.

Griffon Stock Performance

Shares of GFF stock opened at $67.71 on Tuesday. Griffon Co. has a 12 month low of $28.00 and a 12 month high of $75.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 50.53 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.46, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $643.20 million during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. Analysts forecast 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. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. Griffon’s payout ratio is 44.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 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 is available through this hyperlink. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.