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.
Greif Stock Down 1.1 %
GEF traded down $0.76 on Thursday, hitting $71.11. 3 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 185,123. Greif has a 12 month low of $53.65 and a 12 month high of $72.79. The company has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a PE ratio of 12.18, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.44. The stock's fifty day moving average is $65.30 and its 200-day moving average is $62.02.
Greif (NYSE:GEF - Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 8th. The industrial products company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.79 by $0.62. Greif had a return on equity of 28.42% and a net margin of 5.60%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.13 earnings per share. Greif's revenue was up 24.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Greif will post 7.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Greif Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 1st. Investors of record on Friday, June 17th were issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 16th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. Greif's payout ratio is presently 31.19%.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of research firms have issued reports on GEF. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Greif from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, June 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut Greif from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $71.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Friday, May 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Greif from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $65.00.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Greif news, major shareholder Nicholas Joseph Petitti sold 3,071 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $162,437,931.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Greif news, major shareholder Nicholas Joseph Petitti sold 3,071 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at $162,437,931.39. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Mark A. Emkes sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.40, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 43,229 shares of company stock worth $2,968,841. Corporate insiders own 2.59% of the company's stock.
