Greif, Inc. $GEF Shares Purchased by QRG Capital Management Inc.

QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) by 84.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,002 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 3,215 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Greif were worth $455,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Greif by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 37,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,461,000 after buying an additional 3,365 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Greif by 17.0% during the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,803 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $442,000 after buying an additional 988 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Greif during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $654,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Greif during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,193,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Greif by 54.2% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 366,449 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $20,015,000 after buying an additional 128,880 shares during the last quarter. 45.74% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on GEF. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Greif from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Greif in a research note on Wednesday. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Greif from $72.00 to $71.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Zacks Research cut Greif from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on Greif from $77.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.80.

Greif Stock Performance

GEF stock opened at $57.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.00. Greif, Inc. has a 1 year low of $48.23 and a 1 year high of $73.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $62.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $60.44.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The industrial products company reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $1.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $740.23 million. Greif had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 3.52%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.03 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Greif, Inc. will post 4.11 EPS for the current year.

Greif Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.56 per share. This represents a $2.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. This is a positive change from Greif’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.54. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 16th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio is 71.11%.

Insider Activity at Greif

In other news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.55, for a total transaction of $121,100.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 66,678 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,037,352.90. This trade represents a 2.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 7.60% of the company’s stock.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. 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.