Griffon (NYSE:GFF) to Repurchase $400.00 million in Stock

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the conglomerate to purchase up to 10.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Griffon Trading Down 4.6 %

Shares of Griffon stock opened at $73.80 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.82. Griffon has a 12-month low of $44.71 and a 12-month high of $80.85. The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74. The stock has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.31.

Griffon Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a $0.18 dividend. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Griffon’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.18%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GFF has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stephens raised their target price on Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Griffon from $84.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $87.25.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Brian G. Harris sold 13,314 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 199,748 shares in the company, valued at $13,203,342.80. This represents a 6.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.26, for a total transaction of $6,226,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,260,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $140,754,045.96. This represents a 4.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 606,742 shares of company stock worth $42,931,300. Corporate insiders own 16.10% of the company’s stock.

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.