Greif (NYSE:GEF) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.29 EPS

Greif (NYSE:GEF) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The industrial products company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.16 by ($0.29), Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.11 billion. Greif had a return on equity of 8.09% and a net margin of 7.53%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.58 earnings per share.

Greif Stock Down 1.6%

GEF stock opened at $81.47 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $82.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.64. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.79. Greif has a twelve month low of $55.90 and a twelve month high of $90.57.

Greif Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 17th will be paid a $0.62 dividend. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 17th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 77.74%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America cut Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Greif from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Greif in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Greif from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Greif from $90.00 to $88.00 and set a “cautious” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $83.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Lawrence A. Hilsheimer sold 21,500 shares of Greif stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.66, for a total value of $1,906,190.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 25,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,289,644.50. This trade represents a 45.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Bala Sathyanarayanan sold 1,000 shares of Greif stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.67, for a total transaction of $109,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 7,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $827,898.83. This trade represents a 11.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 49,900 shares of company stock valued at $4,414,117. 7.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.