400 Shares in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Purchased by National Pension Service

National Pension Service acquired a new position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GGG. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 48.5% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,106 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 12.7% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 4,856 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $425,000 after buying an additional 549 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Graco during the third quarter worth about $262,000. Financial Advocates Investment Management grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 8.1% during the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 4,551 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $398,000 after buying an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 13.5% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 223,897 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $19,593,000 after buying an additional 26,671 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GGG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price target on Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.00.

Graco Stock Up 1.2 %

GGG opened at $87.13 on Friday. Graco Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.49 and a 12-month high of $94.77. The stock has a market cap of $14.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.90, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average of $84.73 and a 200-day moving average of $85.22.

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

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Graco’s payout ratio is 39.01%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total value of $749,919.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,217,918.84. This trade represents a 12.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Graco Company 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.