Griffon (NYSE:GFF) Stock Price Down 5.2%

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF - Get Free Report) fell 5.2% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $68.70 and last traded at $69.39. 86,474 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 389,286 shares. The stock had previously closed at $73.22.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GFF. Raymond James increased their price objective on Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Griffon from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Griffon Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.02, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $69.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.11.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The conglomerate reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.29. Griffon had a return on equity of 72.80% and a net margin of 2.65%. The company had revenue of $643.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $595.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.86 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Griffon Co. will post 4.58 EPS for the current year.

Griffon Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon's dividend payout ratio is currently 44.78%.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In other news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total value of $134,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,843 shares in the company, valued at $1,269,641.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 16.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Griffon

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Griffon by 2.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,674,318 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $153,717,000 after acquiring an additional 181,416 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Griffon by 1.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,952,411 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $236,132,000 after acquiring an additional 77,058 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Griffon by 4.9% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,929,225 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $38,642,000 after acquiring an additional 90,502 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in Griffon by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,598,353 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $97,420,000 after buying an additional 289,208 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Griffon by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,354,467 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $82,557,000 after buying an additional 30,710 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.22% 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.