Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $93.00.

A number of research analysts recently commented on GGG shares. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $86.29 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $84.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.07. Graco has a 52 week low of $77.49 and a 52 week high of $94.77. The company has a market capitalization of $14.63 billion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.84.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a net margin of 23.00% and a return on equity of 19.38%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Graco will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s payout ratio is 39.01%.

Insider Transactions at Graco

In other news, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total value of $137,888.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $575,572.20. The trade was a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total transaction of $749,919.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 57,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,217,918.84. The trade was a 12.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Graco

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Graco by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,141,579 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,444,864,000 after purchasing an additional 183,335 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Graco by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $652,736,000 after purchasing an additional 443,141 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Graco by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,229,385 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $356,053,000 after purchasing an additional 77,093 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Graco by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,904,681 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,836,000 after purchasing an additional 76,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Graco by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,328,179 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $196,242,000 after purchasing an additional 337,437 shares during the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.