Greif, Inc. (GEF) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 17th

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 17th will be given a dividend of $0.62 per share by the industrial products company on Friday, January 1st. This represents a $2.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 17th.

Greif has a dividend payout ratio of 45.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Greif to earn $5.07 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.48 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.9%.

Greif Stock Down 5.2%

GEF stock opened at $76.99 on Thursday. Greif has a twelve month low of $55.90 and a twelve month high of $90.57. The company has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a PE ratio of 17.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $74.67. 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 (NYSE:GEF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The industrial products company reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by ($0.25). Greif had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 7.73%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Greif will post 4.80 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GEF shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Greif from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “cautious” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Bank of America downgraded Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Greif in a research note on Friday, October 30th. Raymond James Financial upgraded Greif from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Greif from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.40.

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.