BlueStem Wealth Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

BlueStem Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 3,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $261,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graco in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in Graco in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. National Pension Service bought a new stake in Graco in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Graco during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GGG shares. BNP Paribas raised 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 Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.00.

Graco Trading Up 1.2 %

Graco stock opened at $87.13 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.84. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.49 and a 1-year high of $94.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $84.73 and a 200-day moving average of $85.22.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. Research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Monday, April 14th will be issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graco

In other Graco news, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of Graco stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total transaction of $749,919.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 57,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,217,918.84. The trade was a 12.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.