State of Michigan Retirement System Purchases 1,000 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

State of Michigan Retirement System raised its position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 2.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 44,464 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,000 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Graco were worth $4,156,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Graco by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,229,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,494,846,000 after acquiring an additional 144,146 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Graco by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,118,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $270,579,000 after acquiring an additional 498,724 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Graco by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,802,128 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $156,353,000 after purchasing an additional 71,788 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Graco in the 4th quarter worth approximately $152,941,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Graco by 213.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,257,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $109,136,000 after purchasing an additional 856,460 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GGG shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Graco from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com cut Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $103.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.75.

Graco Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $78.68 on Wednesday. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.78 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The firm has a market cap of $13.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.13, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $81.02 and a 200 day moving average of $85.94.

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

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 22nd will be paid 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 yield of 1.30%. Graco’s dividend 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.