Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $93.00.

GGG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $85.00 price target on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, January 31st.

Institutional Trading of Graco

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position in Graco by 3.4% in the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 419,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,749,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Graco by 254.8% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 195,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,111,000 after purchasing an additional 140,417 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 328,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,730,000 after purchasing an additional 8,485 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in shares of Graco by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,545,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $130,298,000 after purchasing an additional 374,967 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the fourth 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 period. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $83.96 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $84.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.51. Graco has a 1 year low of $77.49 and a 1 year high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Graco will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is 39.01%.

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.