Short Interest in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Decreases By 14.1%

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,890,000 shares, a drop of 14.1% from the February 13th total of 2,200,000 shares. Approximately 4.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 363,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Griffon news, Director Cheryl L. Turnbull sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.80, for a total transaction of $242,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 30,730 shares in the company, valued at $2,482,984. This trade represents a 8.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Griffon

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its stake in Griffon by 116.1% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 376 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Griffon in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Grove Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of Griffon during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Griffon during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Griffon during the fourth quarter worth approximately $64,000. 73.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GFF shares. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price (up previously from $92.00) on shares of Griffon in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stephens increased their price target on shares of Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.75.

Griffon Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Griffon stock opened at $71.53 on Friday. Griffon has a 12-month low of $55.01 and a 12-month high of $86.73. The company has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.60 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $74.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.30.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.11. Griffon had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 120.61%. On average, equities analysts expect that Griffon will post 5.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 25th. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.69%.

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.