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

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) saw a significant drop in short interest in 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. Currently, 4.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 363,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Insider Activity at Griffon

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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,482,984. This represents a 8.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 10.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Griffon

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GFF. McIlrath & Eck LLC lifted its position in shares of Griffon by 116.1% during the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 376 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Griffon in the 4th quarter worth about $30,000. Grove Bank & Trust bought a new stake in Griffon during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Griffon in the 4th quarter worth about $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GFF shares. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target (up from $92.00) on shares of Griffon in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Stephens upped their target price on shares of Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.75.

Griffon Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE GFF traded up $1.75 on Wednesday, hitting $71.81. 345,347 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 348,101. Griffon has a 52-week low of $55.01 and a 52-week high of $86.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 2.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $74.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.31.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Research analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 25th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. 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.