19,086 Shares in Greif, Inc. $GEF Acquired by VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 19,086 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,240,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GEF. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Greif by 54.2% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 366,449 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,015,000 after purchasing an additional 128,880 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in Greif during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,193,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Greif by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,251,074 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $68,797,000 after purchasing an additional 55,948 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Greif by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 212,888 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $11,707,000 after purchasing an additional 40,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Greif by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 596,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,805,000 after purchasing an additional 27,832 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Greif

In related news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $120,180.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 64,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,886,501.02. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GEF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of Greif from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Greif in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Greif from $77.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Greif from $76.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Greif from $72.00 to $71.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Greif currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.00.

Greif Stock Down 0.3%

GEF stock opened at $60.47 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $60.76. The company has a market capitalization of $2.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.18. Greif, Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.23 and a 12 month high of $73.16.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.22. Greif had a net margin of 3.52% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The business had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $740.23 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.03 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Greif, Inc. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. This is a boost from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. Greif’s payout ratio is currently 71.11%.

Greif Company Profile

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.