Quantbot Technologies LP Grows Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF - Free Report) by 430.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,897 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 19,396 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP's holdings in Griffon were worth $1,673,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quarry LP lifted its position in Griffon by 98.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the second quarter worth approximately $55,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in Griffon during the 2nd quarter valued at $70,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Griffon by 56.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC grew its holdings in Griffon by 1,024.8% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,136 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,035 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on GFF. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com raised Griffon from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, November 23rd. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $89.25.

Griffon Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of GFF traded up $0.79 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $84.30. 205,642 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 439,414. Griffon Co. has a 12 month low of $45.70 and a 12 month high of $86.73. The company has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.93 and a beta of 1.31. The company's fifty day moving average price is $70.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $67.65. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.19 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This is a boost from Griffon's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Griffon's payout ratio is 17.02%.

Griffon announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In other Griffon news, Director Victor Eugene Renuart sold 4,500 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.46, for a total transaction of $380,070.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,312 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,631,091.52. The trade was a 18.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 241,757 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.35, for a total value of $18,216,389.95. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,860,746 shares in the company, valued at approximately $140,207,211.10. This represents a 11.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 608,017 shares of company stock valued at $43,198,576 in the last three months. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.