International Assets Investment Management LLC Acquires Shares of 5,172 Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,172 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $315,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 1.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,952,411 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $236,132,000 after purchasing an additional 77,058 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 22.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,598,353 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $97,420,000 after buying an additional 289,208 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Griffon by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 529,181 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $32,254,000 after buying an additional 97,390 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its holdings in Griffon by 32.5% in the third quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 221,700 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $8,795,000 after buying an additional 54,400 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in Griffon during the third quarter valued at approximately $6,316,000. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total value of $134,760.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Stock Performance

GFF opened at $68.27 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.48 billion, a PE ratio of 50.95 and a beta of 1.41. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $27.45 and a 1 year high of $75.18. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $69.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $58.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.46, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02.

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

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s payout ratio is 44.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on GFF. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. StockNews.com lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three equities 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $69.50.

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.