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

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $93.00.

GGG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Graco in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $177,434,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Graco by 26,738.4% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,841,916 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $155,255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,835,053 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Graco by 244.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $174,210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,412,704 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Graco by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,929,952 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $162,676,000 after purchasing an additional 518,462 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canoe Financial LP boosted its holdings in Graco by 359.2% during the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 640,474 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,986,000 after purchasing an additional 501,003 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of Graco stock opened at $82.13 on Monday. Graco has a fifty-two week low of $77.49 and a fifty-two week high of $94.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $85.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $85.54. The company has a market cap of $13.81 billion, a PE ratio of 29.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. Analysts expect that Graco will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Monday, April 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.01%.

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.