Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Receives $90.25 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $90.25.

A number of brokerages recently commented on GGG. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price 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.

Graco Stock Performance

Graco stock opened at $85.92 on Friday. Graco has a 52 week low of $69.78 and a 52 week high of $94.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.96.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. Graco had a return on equity of 22.40% and a net margin of 23.16%. The business had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $562.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Graco will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st will be paid a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.17%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Graco

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GGG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Graco by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,229,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,494,846,000 after acquiring an additional 144,146 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $330,532,000 after buying an additional 2,390,602 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Graco by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,732,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $137,361,000 after buying an additional 91,794 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in Graco by 14.5% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,440,378 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $134,618,000 after buying an additional 182,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch AG bought a new position in Graco in the first quarter valued at about $111,428,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.