Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) Stock Rated “Hold” by Wall Street Analysts

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $83.40.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Greif from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Greif from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Greif from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “cautious” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 19th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Raymond James Financial upgraded shares of Greif from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Lawrence A. Hilsheimer sold 21,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.66, for a total transaction of $1,906,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,825 shares in the company, valued at $2,289,644.50. This trade represents a 45.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ole G. Rosgaard sold 40,087 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.68, for a total value of $3,474,741.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 88,267 shares in the company, valued at $7,650,983.56. The trade was a 31.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 98,987 shares of company stock worth $8,661,538 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 7.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in Greif in the third quarter valued at $392,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Greif by 12.1% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,015 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $597,000 after acquiring an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Greif by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 21,021 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,566,000 after acquiring an additional 3,304 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP grew its holdings in Greif by 362.2% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 31,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,362,000 after acquiring an additional 24,846 shares during the period. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in shares of Greif by 29.1% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 36,906 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,749,000 after acquiring an additional 8,322 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.74% of the company’s stock.

Greif Price Performance

GEF stock opened at $82.77 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $83.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.31. The firm has a market cap of $3.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Greif has a 12 month low of $55.75 and a 12 month high of $90.57.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The industrial products company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.50. Greif had a net margin of 7.53% and a return on equity of 8.09%. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Greif will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Greif’s dividend payout ratio is 77.74%.

Greif Company Profile

Greif, Inc is a global producer of industrial and paper packaging products and related services. The company manufactures and supplies fiber, steel and plastic drums; intermediate bulk containers; containerboard; corrugated sheets and products; and other packaging solutions for customers in a range of industries.

Greif also provides packaging lifecycle services, including container reconditioning, recycling, logistics and related customer support. Its products are used to package and transport food and beverage ingredients, chemicals, petroleum products, agricultural materials, pharmaceuticals and other industrial goods.

Founded in 1877 as a cooperage business, Greif has expanded into a multinational packaging company serving customers across North America, Europe and other international markets.