William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $21.77 Million Stock Position in Greif, Inc. $GEF

William Blair Investment Management LLC trimmed its position in Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) by 34.4% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 334,963 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 175,752 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Greif were worth $21,769,000 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. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Greif in the first quarter worth about $37,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Greif by 4.3% in the first quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 7,459 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $410,000 after buying an additional 308 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Greif by 17.0% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,803 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $442,000 after buying an additional 988 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Greif by 84.9% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,002 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 3,215 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Greif by 6.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 10,280 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $565,000 after buying an additional 596 shares during the period. 45.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on GEF shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Greif from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Greif from $76.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Greif in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Greif from $77.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Greif from $72.00 to $71.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.00.

Greif Price Performance

Shares of GEF opened at $58.91 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a PE ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $62.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.41. Greif, Inc. has a twelve month low of $48.23 and a twelve month high of $73.16.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $740.23 million. Greif had a net margin of 3.52% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Greif, Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were given a dividend of $0.56 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. This is a boost from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. This represents a $2.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Greif’s payout ratio is 71.11%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.55, for a total transaction of $121,100.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 66,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,037,352.90. This trade represents a 2.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.