Shares of Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF – Get Free Report) dropped 3.1% during trading on Friday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $67.00 to $64.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock. Greif traded as low as $65.23 and last traded at $65.23. Approximately 38,290 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 146,866 shares. The stock had previously closed at $67.33.
Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on shares of Greif in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Greif in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Greif
Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Manhattan CO. LLC. acquired a new stake in Greif in the first quarter valued at $38,000. Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in Greif by 48.9% in the first quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 700 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in Greif by 67.1% in the second quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 670 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 269 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd raised its stake in Greif by 326.6% in the first quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 1,813 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 1,388 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY acquired a new stake in Greif in the second quarter valued at $208,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.98% of the company’s stock.
Greif Stock Performance
The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.52 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The company has a market capitalization of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.83, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $66.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.22.
Greif (NYSE:GEF – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 7th. The industrial products company reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $1.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.34 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 19.88% and a net margin of 7.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Greif, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.
Greif Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 15th. Greif’s payout ratio is 31.23%.
About Greif
Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. It operates through 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.