Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research 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 covered the stock in the last year is $89.25.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 target price on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th.

Graco Trading Up 0.7 %

Graco stock opened at $90.22 on Tuesday. Graco has a twelve month low of $77.49 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $82.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.88, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.82.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.19 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Graco will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.13%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graco

In related news, insider Peter J. O’shea sold 18,075 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total transaction of $1,604,337.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,288,440.16. This trade represents a 55.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,406,094.26. This trade represents a 10.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Graco

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GGG. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $183,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 4,222 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $369,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,031 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $161,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,687 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $134,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,397 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $190,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

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.