Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,190,000 shares, a drop of 10.2% from the March 15th total of 2,440,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 393,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.6 days. Approximately 4.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total transaction of $134,760.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 18,843 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Griffon

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon in the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Griffon in the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of Griffon by 931.0% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,165 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 1,052 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of Griffon by 671.1% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 557 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in shares of Griffon by 64.5% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 2,754 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 1,080 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on GFF shares. StockNews.com downgraded Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of GFF stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $66.52. 255,854 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 282,692. Griffon has a twelve month low of $25.97 and a twelve month high of $75.18. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.66 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.46.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $643.20 million for 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Griffon will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s payout ratio is 44.78%.

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.