Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Short Interest Up 9.8% in December

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) was the target of a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,460,000 shares, an increase of 9.8% from the December 15th total of 2,240,000 shares. Approximately 6.2% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 429,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.7 days.

Insider Activity at Griffon

In other Griffon news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total transaction of $415,564.60. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,306 shares in the company, valued at $3,561,316.28. This represents a 10.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director James W. Sight sold 3,660 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.42, for a total transaction of $279,697.20. Following the transaction, the director now owns 16,708 shares in the company, valued at $1,276,825.36. This trade represents a 17.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 365,170 shares of company stock valued at $27,178,746. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Quarry LP increased its stake in Griffon by 98.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 386 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in Griffon during the 2nd quarter valued at about $70,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Griffon by 56.9% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 411 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in Griffon by 1,024.8% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,136 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 1,035 shares during the period. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Griffon Stock Performance

Shares of Griffon stock traded up $0.91 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $76.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 321,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 371,268. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66. Griffon has a one year low of $55.01 and a one year high of $86.73. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.13 and a beta of 1.43.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. Griffon’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Griffon will post 5.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Monday, November 25th were given a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 25th. This is an increase from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.94%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.02%.

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that permits the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the conglomerate to purchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on GFF shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Stephens raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $89.25.

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.