Inspire Investing LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Inspire Investing LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 6.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,242 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,435 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Graco by 134.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Graco in the fourth quarter valued at $152,941,000. Flossbach Von Storch AG bought a new stake in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter valued at $111,428,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Graco by 213.3% during 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. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Graco in the 1st quarter worth about $70,891,000. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of Graco stock opened at $85.88 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.02. The firm has a market cap of $14.53 billion, a PE ratio of 29.61, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.81. Graco Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.78 and a 1 year high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $553.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.16% and a return on equity of 22.40%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 35.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson decreased their price target on Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.80.

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.