Greif (NYSE:GEF) Share Price Breaks Below Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF)’s share price passed below its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $74.68 and traded as low as $73.09. Greif shares last traded at $73.3840, with a volume of 517,255 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on GEF. Bank of America downgraded shares of Greif from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered 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. Raymond James Financial raised shares of Greif from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 16th. Wall Street Zen lowered Greif from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $88.00 target price (down from $94.00) on shares of Greif in a research report on Thursday. Two investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Greif has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.20.

Greif Stock Down 1.2%

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $81.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.79.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The industrial products company reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.25). The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.58 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Greif, Inc. will post 4.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Greif Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 17th will be paid a $0.62 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 17th. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Greif’s dividend payout ratio is 55.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Greif

In other Greif news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.82, for a total value of $163,640.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 51,832 shares in the company, valued at $4,240,894.24. The trade was a 3.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Bala Sathyanarayanan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.67, for a total value of $109,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 7,549 shares in the company, valued at approximately $827,898.83. The trade was a 11.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,000 shares of company stock valued at $613,710. 7.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Greif

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Greif by 35.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 246,492 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,361,000 after buying an additional 63,843 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Greif by 5.9% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 90,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,099,000 after acquiring an additional 5,071 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Greif by 29.1% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 36,906 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,749,000 after acquiring an additional 8,322 shares in the last quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its position in Greif by 362.2% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 31,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,362,000 after acquiring an additional 24,846 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Greif by 10.8% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 27,528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,051,000 after acquiring an additional 2,694 shares during the last quarter. 45.74% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.