Raymond James Reiterates “Strong-Buy” Rating for Griffon (NYSE:GFF)

Raymond James reissued their strong-buy rating on shares of Griffon (NYSE:GFF) in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has a $100.00 target price on the conglomerate’s stock, up from their prior target price of $95.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Griffon in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $91.00 price objective for the company. Loop Capital raised Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.20.

Griffon Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF opened at $68.51 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $69.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.98 and a beta of 1.17. Griffon has a 1 year low of $55.01 and a 1 year high of $86.73.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The conglomerate reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $611.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $618.23 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 120.61% and a net margin of 9.13%. The company’s revenue was down 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.35 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.05%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.91%.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI boosted its position in Griffon by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 23,551 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,678,000 after purchasing an additional 6,125 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Griffon during the fourth quarter valued at $21,451,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 538,200 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $38,358,000 after purchasing an additional 18,274 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Griffon by 4.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 224,679 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,728,000 after purchasing an additional 9,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Griffon by 57.0% during the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 27,247 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,942,000 after purchasing an additional 9,896 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Company 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.