Claro Advisors LLC Acquires 159 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Claro Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 1.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 9,071 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 159 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vident Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 567.4% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after acquiring an additional 36,471 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 2.0% during the second quarter. M&G Plc now owns 483,535 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,199,000 after acquiring an additional 9,673 shares in the last quarter. Private Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Graco during the third quarter valued at approximately $876,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 95.1% during the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 17,226 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 8,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 1.7% during the second quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 857,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,965,000 after acquiring an additional 14,527 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE GGG opened at $89.62 on Monday. Graco Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.49 and a 12 month high of $94.77. The stock has a market cap of $15.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.82. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $85.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.48.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The company had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st were paid a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.04%.

Insider Transactions at Graco

In related news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total transaction of $284,004.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,406,094.26. This trade represents a 10.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on GGG. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.25.

About Graco

Graco Inc designs, manufactures, and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense, and spray fluid and powder materials worldwide. The Contractor segment offers sprayers to apply paint to walls and other structures; two-component proportioning systems that are used to spray polyurethane foam and polyurea coatings; and viscous coatings to roofs, as well as markings on roads, parking lots, athletic fields, and floors.