Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.28

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%.

Graco has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a payout ratio of 34.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Graco to earn $3.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.8%.

Graco Stock Performance

NYSE:GGG opened at $85.84 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $84.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.80. Graco has a fifty-two week low of $77.49 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. Research analysts forecast that Graco will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on GGG. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the firm’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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at approximately $575,572.20. This trade represents a 19.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were 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 in the company, 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. Company insiders own 2.63% 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.