Cetera Investment Advisers Purchases 335 Shares of Griffon Corporation $GFF

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,503 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 335 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Griffon were worth $393,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GFF. Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in Griffon by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 674,520 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $48,073,000 after purchasing an additional 159,557 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Griffon by 95,382.7% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 624,457 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $44,505,000 after purchasing an additional 623,803 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Griffon by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 448,464 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $31,962,000 after purchasing an additional 44,166 shares during the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its position in Griffon by 14.1% in the first quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 282,837 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $20,223,000 after purchasing an additional 34,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Griffon by 2.3% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 234,035 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $16,734,000 after purchasing an additional 5,243 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on GFF shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective (up previously from $95.00) on shares of Griffon in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.20.

Griffon Price Performance

GFF opened at $74.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 22.58, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 2.70. Griffon Corporation has a 52-week low of $60.97 and a 52-week high of $86.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 55.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $75.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.52.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The conglomerate reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.50. The company had revenue of $613.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $649.95 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 144.21% and a net margin of 2.78%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Griffon Corporation will post 5.55 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.73%.

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.