Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.18 Per Share

Griffon Co. (NYSE:GFF) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 13th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.18 per share by the conglomerate on Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This is a boost from Griffon’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Griffon has increased its dividend payment by an average of 17.9% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Griffon has a payout ratio of 13.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Griffon to earn $6.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.2%.

Griffon Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GFF opened at $82.96 on Friday. Griffon has a 1 year low of $45.70 and a 1 year high of $83.76. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $69.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $67.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.74, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a current ratio of 2.66.

Griffon (NYSE:GFF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The conglomerate reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $659.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $641.24 million. Griffon had a return on equity of 108.70% and a net margin of 8.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Griffon will post 5.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Griffon declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, November 13th that allows the company to repurchase $400.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the conglomerate to buy up to 10.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Griffon

In related news, COO Robert F. Mehmel sold 912 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.06, for a total transaction of $63,894.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 746,611 shares in the company, valued at $52,307,566.66. This trade represents a 0.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ronald J. Kramer sold 3,121 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $218,470.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,178,320 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $152,482,400. This represents a 0.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 603,517 shares of company stock valued at $42,818,506. 16.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on GFF. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Griffon from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Griffon from $92.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of Griffon from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Griffon currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

About Griffon

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.