Diversified Trust Co Acquires 8,625 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Diversified Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 80.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,625 shares during the quarter. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,806,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV bought a new position in shares of Graco during the 4th quarter worth about $6,412,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Graco during the 4th quarter worth about $1,606,000. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI increased its position in shares of Graco by 179.4% during the 4th quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 77,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,756,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares in the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Graco during the 4th quarter worth about $2,026,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of Graco by 334.4% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 30,520 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,648,000 after purchasing an additional 23,494 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GGG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Graco from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $103.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graco has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.75.

Graco Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE GGG traded down $1.38 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $77.90. 147,127 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 725,605. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.04. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.78 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.85, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.82.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $492.19 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $536.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 23.01% and a net margin of 23.15%. The firm’s revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 3.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Investors of record on Monday, July 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 22nd. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Graco’s payout ratio is presently 35.17%.

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.