Seven Eight Capital LP Sells 23,598 Shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Seven Eight Capital LP lessened its position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 78.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,427 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 23,598 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP’s holdings in Griffon were worth $471,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GFF. LSV Asset Management increased its holdings in Griffon by 486.0% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 911,295 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $66,834,000 after purchasing an additional 755,773 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $20,531,000. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $16,829,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in shares of Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $9,403,000. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in shares of Griffon by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 529,181 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $32,254,000 after acquiring an additional 97,390 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GFF has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Griffon from $84.00 to $86.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Griffon currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Griffon news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 13,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.88, for a total transaction of $869,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 48,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,851.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 13,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.88, for a total value of $869,440.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 48,368 shares in the company, valued at $3,234,851.84. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.07, for a total transaction of $6,707,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,500,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $167,725,034.22. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Griffon Stock Performance

Griffon stock traded down $2.89 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $69.98. 359,128 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 423,455. Griffon Co. has a 52 week low of $38.33 and a 52 week high of $77.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.80, a quick ratio of 1.56 and a current ratio of 2.78. The firm has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.08 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.75.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The conglomerate reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $672.88 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $625.22 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 90.02% and a net margin of 7.48%. Griffon’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 29th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 29th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.83%.

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.