Insider Selling: Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) EVP Sells 304 Shares of Stock

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF - Get Free Report) EVP Bala Sathyanarayanan sold 304 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.15, for a total transaction of $21,021.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 44,725 shares in the company, valued at $3,092,733.75. This trade represents a 0.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Bala Sathyanarayanan also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, July 10th, Bala Sathyanarayanan bought 109 shares of Greif stock. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $71.50 per share, for a total transaction of $7,793.50.

Greif Stock Down 0.8%

GEF traded down $0.55 during trading on Friday, reaching $66.94. The company had a trading volume of 241,393 shares, compared to its average volume of 179,389. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Greif, Inc. has a 12 month low of $48.23 and a 12 month high of $73.16. The business's fifty day moving average price is $61.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.62. The company has a market cap of $3.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.86, a PEG ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 0.99.

Greif (NYSE:GEF - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 4th. The industrial products company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.11. Greif had a net margin of 3.74% and a return on equity of 10.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Greif, Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Greif Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th were paid a $0.54 dividend. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. Greif's payout ratio is currently 60.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in Greif in the first quarter valued at approximately $654,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new position in Greif in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,193,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Greif by 54.2% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 366,449 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $20,015,000 after buying an additional 128,880 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 5.5% in the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 37,135 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,042,000 after purchasing an additional 1,944 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Greif by 4.7% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 45.74% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GEF. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Greif from $75.00 to $67.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. Bank of America reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $77.00 price objective (up previously from $71.00) on shares of Greif in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Greif from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Greif currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $74.83.

About Greif

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.