Bala Sathyanarayanan Sells 748 Shares of Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Stock

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) EVP Bala Sathyanarayanan sold 748 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.21, for a total value of $45,037.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 32,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,970,613.09. This represents a 2.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Greif Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GEF opened at $59.64 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $65.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.04. Greif, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.95 and a fifty-two week high of $73.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The industrial products company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.23). The firm had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Greif had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 11.85%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Greif, Inc. will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.54 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. Greif’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GEF has been the topic of several recent research reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Greif from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Greif from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Sidoti assumed coverage on shares of Greif in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $93.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Greif from $79.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Greif presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Greif

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quarry LP lifted its position in Greif by 71.9% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 545 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings in shares of Greif by 80.5% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,258 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 561 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its position in Greif by 27,766.7% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,666 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC increased its stake in Greif by 50.0% during the third quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its position in Greif by 7.0% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $192,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.