Bank of America Corp DE Buys 184,138 Shares of Griffon Corporation $GFF

Key Points

• Bank of America acquired 184,138 Griffon shares worth approximately $17.96 million, representing about 0.41% of the company. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 73.22% of Griffon.
• Analyst sentiment is strongly bullish: Griffon has a consensus “Strong Buy” rating and an average price target of $122.50, above its reported opening price of $96.45.
• Griffon exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $1.51 in EPS and $481.37 million in revenue, while declaring a $0.22 quarterly dividend. However, revenue declined 21.5% year over year, and insiders sold roughly $17.9 million in stock over the past three months.

Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 184,138 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $17,959,000. Bank of America Corp DE owned approximately 0.41% of Griffon as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Griffon during the 2nd quarter worth $24,381,000. ABS Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Griffon during the second quarter worth about $3,413,550. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in Griffon during the second quarter worth about $581,000. Ancora Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Griffon in the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in Griffon in the second quarter valued at about $40,177,000. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on GFF shares. Robert W. Baird set a $125.00 price target on Griffon in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research raised Griffon from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Stephens raised their price objective on Griffon from $115.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Griffon from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Strong Buy" and an average target price of $122.50.

Griffon Price Performance

GFF stock opened at $96.45 on Friday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $96.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.05. The firm has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.75, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 2.41. Griffon Corporation has a 1 year low of $65.01 and a 1 year high of $108.57.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The conglomerate reported $1.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $481.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $457.70 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 249.31% and a net margin of 8.08%.Griffon's revenue was down 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.50 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Griffon Corporation will post 5.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 31st were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 31st. Griffon's payout ratio is currently 22.45%.

Insider Activity

In other Griffon news, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 22,209 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.08, for a total value of $2,267,094.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 763,691 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $77,957,577.28. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Kevin F. Sullivan sold 3,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.59, for a total value of $369,565.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 40,602 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,287,165.18. This trade represents a 7.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 173,534 shares of company stock worth $17,916,204. Corporate insiders own 10.20% of the company's stock.

Griffon Company Profile

Griffon Corporation NYSE: GFF is a diversified holding company that manufactures and distributes products for residential, commercial and industrial markets. Its operations are organized primarily around home and building products, as well as consumer and professional products, with sales in North America and international markets.

Through its building-products businesses, Griffon offers garage doors, rolling steel doors, security grilles, shutters and related access products. Its brands include Clopay, Cornell and Cookson, which serve residential, commercial and industrial customers through dealers, distributors, contractors and other channels.

Griffon's consumer and professional products operations include garden and landscaping tools, outdoor equipment and ceiling fans.

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