This Metric Says You Are Smart to Sell Griffon Corporation (GFF) – Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (APOG), Headwaters Inc (HW)

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Is Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) undervalued? Investors who are in the know are becoming less hopeful. The number of long hedge fund positions stayed the same which is a slightly negative development in our experience

If you’d ask most stock holders, hedge funds are viewed as worthless, old financial tools of yesteryear. While there are greater than 8000 funds trading at the moment, we at Insider Monkey choose to focus on the aristocrats of this club, close to 450 funds. It is widely believed that this group oversees the lion’s share of all hedge funds’ total asset base, and by paying attention to their top equity investments, we have come up with a number of investment strategies that have historically outperformed Mr. Market. Our small-cap hedge fund strategy outperformed the S&P 500 index by 18 percentage points per year for a decade in our back tests, and since we’ve began to sharing our picks with our subscribers at the end of August 2012, we have outpaced the S&P 500 index by 24 percentage points in 7 months (check out a sample of our picks).

Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF)

Equally as important, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to parse down the world of equities. There are many reasons for an executive to cut shares of his or her company, but only one, very clear reason why they would buy. Several academic studies have demonstrated the impressive potential of this method if investors know where to look (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a peek at the key action encompassing Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF).

What have hedge funds been doing with Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF)?

At the end of the fourth quarter, a total of 9 of the hedge funds we track were long in this stock, a change of 0% from the third quarter. With hedge funds’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists an “upper tier” of notable hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes substantially.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors had the biggest position in Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF), worth close to $72.2 million, comprising 0.5% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Richard S. Pzena of Pzena Investment Management, with a $31.4 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Remaining hedgies that hold long positions include Doug Silverman’s Senator Investment Group, D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw and Chuck Royce’s Royce & Associates.

Since Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) has witnessed a declination in interest from hedge fund managers, we can see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that slashed their positions entirely heading into 2013. Interestingly, Jean-Marie Eveillard’s First Eagle Investment Management said goodbye to the biggest investment of the “upper crust” of funds we key on, valued at an estimated $0 million in stock. These transactions are important to note, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

How are insiders trading Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF)?

Insider buying is at its handiest when the company in focus has seen transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest six-month time period, Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Griffon Corporation (NYSE:GFF). These stocks are Trex Company, Inc. (NYSE:TREX), Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:APOG), Headwaters Inc (NYSE:HW), Universal Forest Products, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFPI), and AAON, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAON). This group of stocks are in the general building materials industry and their market caps match GFF’s market cap.

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