Everence Capital Management Inc. Invests $236,000 in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,880 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Griffon by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 26,030 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $730,000 after acquiring an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments raised its position in shares of Griffon by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 28,419 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,127,000 after acquiring an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its position in shares of Griffon by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 41,660 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $856,000 after acquiring an additional 594 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 23,883 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $855,000 after acquiring an additional 604 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SkyView Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Griffon by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 34,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 758 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GFF. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James raised their target price on Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $69.50.

Griffon Price Performance

GFF stock opened at $65.24 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.68 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.46. Griffon Co. has a 52-week low of $25.97 and a 52-week high of $75.18. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.19.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $643.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $595.87 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 72.80% and a net margin of 2.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.86 EPS. Research analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 4.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Griffon

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total transaction of $134,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

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.