Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $98.20.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GFF. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Zacks Research cut shares of Griffon from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Griffon in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Griffon

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Griffon by 2.3% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 234,035 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $16,734,000 after acquiring an additional 5,243 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Griffon by 118.6% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,420 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $602,000 after acquiring an additional 4,568 shares in the last quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI increased its position 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 worth $2,131,000 after acquiring an additional 6,260 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Griffon by 178.4% during the first quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 15,628 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,117,000 after acquiring an additional 10,015 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the first quarter worth $53,994,000. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Trading Down 1.7%

GFF opened at $75.46 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $76.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.60. The firm has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a PE ratio of 56.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.11. Griffon has a twelve month low of $62.26 and a twelve month high of $86.73. 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 (NYSE:GFF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The conglomerate reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 2.78% and a return on equity of 144.21%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Griffon will post 5.55 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.