Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Position Reduced by Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF - Free Report) by 21.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 115,332 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 31,160 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. owned 0.22% of Griffon worth $7,030,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Griffon by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,674,318 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $153,717,000 after buying an additional 181,416 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,952,411 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $236,132,000 after purchasing an additional 77,058 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,929,225 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $38,642,000 after purchasing an additional 90,502 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 4.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 893,178 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $35,995,000 after purchasing an additional 35,479 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Griffon by 50.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 586,040 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $23,248,000 after purchasing an additional 196,430 shares in the last quarter. 73.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Griffon from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Griffon from $72.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Griffon from $60.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 5th.

Griffon Stock Performance

Griffon stock traded up $2.52 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $73.24. 270,117 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 398,486. Griffon Co. has a 12-month low of $25.97 and a 12-month high of $74.32. 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 cap of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 1.41. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $68.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $55.07.

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

Griffon Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Griffon's payout ratio is 44.78%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James W. Sight sold 2,000 shares of Griffon stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.38, for a total value of $134,760.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,843 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,269,641.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 16.10% of the company's stock.

Griffon 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.