ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC Makes New $9.40 Million Investment in Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF)

ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 154,282 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $9,403,000. Griffon accounts for approximately 8.8% of ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in Griffon by 671.1% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its stake in Griffon by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 3,336 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $203,000 after buying an additional 336 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Griffon in the 4th quarter valued at about $214,000. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Griffon during the 4th quarter worth approximately $236,000. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Griffon news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total value of $134,760.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,843 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,269,641.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 16.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GFF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Griffon from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com raised Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Griffon has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and an average price target of $69.50.

Griffon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GFF traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $69.13. 250,884 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 316,661. Griffon Co. has a twelve month low of $29.11 and a twelve month high of $75.18. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $59.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a current ratio of 2.46 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a PE ratio of 51.59 and a beta of 1.43.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $643.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $595.87 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 72.80% and a net margin of 2.65%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.86 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Griffon Co. will post 4.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon’s payout ratio is currently 44.78%.

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.