Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Purchases Shares of 722 Griffon Corporation $GFF

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $52,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GFF. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Griffon by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 234,035 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $16,734,000 after purchasing an additional 5,243 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 118.6% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,420 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $602,000 after buying an additional 4,568 shares during the period. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 26.6% during the first quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 29,811 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,131,000 after buying an additional 6,260 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 178.4% in the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 15,628 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,117,000 after buying an additional 10,015 shares during the period. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Griffon in the 1st quarter valued at about $53,994,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GFF. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Griffon in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Zacks Research cut shares of Griffon from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Griffon currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.20.

Griffon Trading Down 1.9%

NYSE GFF opened at $73.63 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 54.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $76.01 and its 200 day moving average is $73.42. Griffon Corporation has a twelve month low of $62.26 and a twelve month high of $86.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 22.58.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The conglomerate reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Griffon had a return on equity of 144.21% and a net margin of 2.78%.The business had revenue of $613.63 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $649.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.24 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Griffon Corporation will post 5.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is 53.73%.

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.