Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $83.40

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $83.40.

Several brokerages have recently commented on GEF. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Greif from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Bank of America lowered shares of Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Greif from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Greif from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, October 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Greif from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “cautious” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 19th.

Insider Activity at Greif

In other news, Director Mark Emkes sold 3,000 shares of Greif stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total value of $261,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 43,400 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,777,536. The trade was a 6.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Lawrence Hilsheimer sold 21,500 shares of Greif stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.66, for a total transaction of $1,906,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 25,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,289,644.50. This trade represents a 45.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 98,987 shares of company stock valued at $8,661,538. Insiders own 7.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Greif

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GEF. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Greif by 35.0% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 246,492 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $18,361,000 after purchasing an additional 63,843 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 5.9% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,099,000 after buying an additional 5,071 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 29.1% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 36,906 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,749,000 after buying an additional 8,322 shares during the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 362.2% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 31,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after buying an additional 24,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in Greif during the 1st quarter worth about $1,853,000. Institutional investors own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Greif Price Performance

Greif stock opened at $82.05 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a PE ratio of 25.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.77. Greif has a one year low of $55.75 and a one year high of $90.57. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.72.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.50. Greif had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 7.53%. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. Greif’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Greif will post 4.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.62 per share. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.74%.

Greif Company Profile

Greif, Inc is a global producer of industrial and paper packaging products and related services. The company manufactures and supplies fiber, steel and plastic drums; intermediate bulk containers; containerboard; corrugated sheets and products; and other packaging solutions for customers in a range of industries.

Greif also provides packaging lifecycle services, including container reconditioning, recycling, logistics and related customer support. Its products are used to package and transport food and beverage ingredients, chemicals, petroleum products, agricultural materials, pharmaceuticals and other industrial goods.

Founded in 1877 as a cooperage business, Greif has expanded into a multinational packaging company serving customers across North America, Europe and other international markets.