Griffon Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.18 (NYSE:GFF)

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 25th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the conglomerate on Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 25th.

Griffon has raised its dividend by an average of 24.1% annually over the last three years. Griffon has a dividend payout ratio of 10.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Griffon to earn $6.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Griffon Stock Down 3.2 %

GFF stock opened at $72.63 on Friday. Griffon has a twelve month low of $55.01 and a twelve month high of $86.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 2.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.44. The firm has a market cap of $3.45 billion, a PE ratio of 14.82 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50 day moving average of $75.12 and a 200 day moving average of $71.39.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.11. Griffon had a return on equity of 120.61% and a net margin of 9.13%. On average, research analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO W. Christopher Durborow sold 5,170 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.38, for a total value of $415,564.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 44,306 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,561,316.28. The trade was a 10.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Cheryl L. Turnbull sold 3,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.80, for a total value of $242,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 30,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,482,984. The trade was a 8.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 12,670 shares of company stock valued at $1,038,035. Corporate insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Loop Capital raised Griffon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered Griffon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price (up previously from $92.00) on shares of Griffon in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Stephens lifted their target price on Griffon from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.75.

Griffon declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, November 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $400.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the conglomerate to reacquire up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.