Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Reduces Stock Holdings in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lessened its position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 218,231 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 9,240 shares during the quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 0.44% of Griffon worth $15,276,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Griffon by 98.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 777 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new stake in Griffon in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Griffon during the 1st quarter valued at $65,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in Griffon during the second quarter worth $70,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Griffon by 56.9% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,133 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $84.41 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $69.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.22. Griffon Co. has a 52 week low of $45.70 and a 52 week high of $86.73. The company has a market cap of $4.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.00 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 2.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. Griffon had a net margin of 8.00% and a return on equity of 108.70%. The company had revenue of $659.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $641.24 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.19 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 5.57 EPS for the current year.

Griffon announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, November 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $400.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the conglomerate to repurchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This is a positive change from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.18%.

Insider Activity

In other Griffon news, CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.10, for a total transaction of $880,055.40. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 199,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,203,342.80. The trade was a 6.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 912 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.06, for a total transaction of $63,894.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 746,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $52,307,566.66. The trade was a 0.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.