Huntington National Bank Boosts Stock Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Huntington National Bank increased its position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 60.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 953 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Graco were worth $83,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Graco by 567.4% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after purchasing an additional 36,471 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc lifted its position in shares of Graco by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. M&G Plc now owns 483,535 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,199,000 after buying an additional 9,673 shares in the last quarter. Private Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Graco in the 3rd quarter valued at $876,000. Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in Graco by 95.1% in the 2nd quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 17,226 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 8,396 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in Graco by 1.7% during the second quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 857,281 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $67,965,000 after acquiring an additional 14,527 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GGG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Graco Price Performance

GGG opened at $90.22 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $82.55. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.49 and a 1-year high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $519.21 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.04%.

Graco Profile

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.