Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 60.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,232 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 3,400 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Griffon were worth $136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GFF. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 829.3% in the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 572,217 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $23,060,000 after buying an additional 510,641 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Griffon in the fourth quarter worth approximately $14,521,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 7.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,656,744 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $113,304,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,598,353 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $97,420,000 after buying an additional 289,208 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 185.3% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 369,702 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,232,000 after buying an additional 240,137 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GFF. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.50.

Griffon Trading Up 1.2 %

Griffon stock opened at $65.97 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.23 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 1.24. Griffon Co. has a 1 year low of $25.97 and a 1 year high of $75.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $69.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.50.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $643.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $595.87 million. Griffon had a net margin of 2.65% and a return on equity of 72.80%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Griffon Co. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 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.