State Street Corp Increases Stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

State Street Corp increased its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF - Free Report) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,555,908 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 61,210 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 3.16% of Griffon worth $108,914,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP grew its holdings in Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new stake in Griffon during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in Griffon in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $70,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Griffon by 56.9% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Griffon by 1,024.8% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,136 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 1,035 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $415,564.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,306 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,561,316.28. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Seth L. Kaplan sold 4,844 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $339,080.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 198,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,899,970. This represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 474,622 shares of company stock worth $34,819,512 in the last ninety days. 16.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF traded up $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $78.54. 284,720 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 431,872. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $73.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.68. The company has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.57 and a beta of 1.39. Griffon Co. has a 52-week low of $55.01 and a 52-week high of $86.73. 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 quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The business's revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.19 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 25th. This is a boost from Griffon's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.92%. Griffon's dividend payout ratio is currently 17.02%.

Griffon 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.