Greif, Inc. engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. It operates in three segments: Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management. 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. This segment also offers flexible intermediate bulk containers and related services to the agriculture, construction, and food industries. The Paper Packaging & Services segment produces and sells containerboards, corrugated sheets and containers, and other corrugated and specialty products to customers in the packaging, automotive, food, and building products markets; and produces and sells coated and uncoated recycled paperboard, and recycled fiber. This segment's corrugated container products are used to ship various products, such as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, automotive components, books, and furniture, as well as various other applications. The Land Management segment engages in harvesting and regeneration of timber properties; and sale of timberland and special use properties. As of October 31, 2021, this segment owned approximately 175,000 acres of timber properties in the southeastern United States. The company was formerly known as Greif Bros. Corporation and changed its name to Greif, Inc. in 2001. Greif, Inc. was founded in 1877 and is headquartered in Delaware, Ohio.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GEF shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Greif from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, June 13th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Greif from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $71.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Friday, May 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Greif from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Greif presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.00.
Greif Stock Performance
NYSE:GEF traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $72.64. The stock had a trading volume of 3,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 188,312. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $61.88. Greif has a 12-month low of $53.65 and a 12-month high of $72.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The stock has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.26, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.92.
Greif (NYSE:GEF - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 8th. The industrial products company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.79 by $0.62. Greif had a net margin of 5.60% and a return on equity of 28.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.13 EPS. Greif's quarterly revenue was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Greif will post 7.66 EPS for the current year.
Greif Announces Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 17th were paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 16th. Greif's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.19%.
Insider Transactions at Greif
In other Greif news, major shareholder Nicholas Joseph Petitti sold 3,071 shares of Greif stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.49, for a total value of $216,474.79. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 2,304,411 shares in the company, valued at approximately $162,437,931.39. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Mark A. Emkes sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.40, for a total transaction of $374,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 34,326 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,141,942.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Nicholas Joseph Petitti sold 3,071 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.49, for a total value of $216,474.79. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,304,411 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $162,437,931.39. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 43,229 shares of company stock valued at $2,968,841 in the last 90 days. 2.59% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.
