Primecap Management Co. CA Increases Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 238,400 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 4,300 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Griffon were worth $16,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Griffon in the 4th quarter worth about $43,325,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Griffon by 74.8% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 473,490 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $33,144,000 after buying an additional 202,685 shares during the last quarter. abrdn plc bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the fourth quarter worth approximately $12,842,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Griffon during the third quarter valued at approximately $9,800,000. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in shares of Griffon by 21.4% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 348,907 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $24,423,000 after acquiring an additional 61,399 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on GFF shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Stephens upped their price target on Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective (up from $92.00) on shares of Griffon in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Loop Capital raised Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $98.75.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Griffon news, Director Cheryl L. Turnbull sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.80, for a total value of $242,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,730 shares in the company, valued at $2,482,984. This represents a 8.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 10.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Griffon Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $71.81 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $74.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $72.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.66 and a beta of 1.40. Griffon Co. has a 52-week low of $55.01 and a 52-week high of $86.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.51.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.11. Griffon had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 120.61%. Analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 5.55 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.69%.

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.