Vontobel Holding Ltd. Acquires New Shares in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. acquired a new stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 5,128 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $313,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at $214,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of Griffon by 31.1% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 6,265 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Griffon in the 3rd quarter valued at $251,000. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC bought a new stake in shares of Griffon in the 3rd quarter valued at $288,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Griffon during the 4th quarter worth about $315,000. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Griffon

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.50.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF opened at $69.07 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.54 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a 50-day moving average of $69.73 and a 200-day moving average of $58.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Griffon Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.45 and a fifty-two week high of $75.18.

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

Griffon Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 44.78%.

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.