Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $365,000.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nuveen Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Graco in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,612,000. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Graco by 3.5% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,382,636 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $771,901,000 after buying an additional 517,850 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Graco by 10.1% in the second quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,932,293 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $96,963,000 after buying an additional 177,159 shares during the last quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID raised its holdings in Graco by 100.3% in the second quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers Inc. ID now owns 298,658 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $14,987,000 after buying an additional 149,551 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management & Equity Research Inc. raised its holdings in Graco by 51.5% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management & Equity Research Inc. now owns 388,760 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $19,508,000 after buying an additional 132,217 shares during the last quarter. 84.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Several brokerages have issued reports on GGG. ValuEngine cut shares of Graco from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. Royal Bank of Canada set a $46.00 target price on shares of Graco and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have assigned a hold rating to the company. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.75.
Shares of GGG stock traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $49.25. The company had a trading volume of 666,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 529,291. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $46.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.68 and a current ratio of 2.69. The firm has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.95. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $38.59 and a one year high of $53.91.
Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $400.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $418.93 million. Graco had a net margin of 20.29% and a return on equity of 36.17%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 1.81 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were given a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 34.04%.
In other news, Director William J. Carroll sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.53, for a total value of $279,180.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 49,984 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,325,755.52. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Caroline M. Chambers sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.23, for a total transaction of $964,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,050,353.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 46,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,171,580. Company insiders own 4.23% of the company’s stock.
Graco Company Profile
Graco, Inc is a manufacturing company, which designs, manufactures and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense and spray fluid and powder materials. It operates through the following segments: Industrial, Contractor and Process. The Industrial segment includes the Applied Fluid Technologies division, Industrial Products division and Process division.
Read More: How is the S&P 500 index different from the DJIA?
Receive News & Ratings for Graco Daily – Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts’ ratings for Graco and related companies with MarketBeat.com’s FREE daily email newsletter.
