Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC Buys 400 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC raised its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 213,387 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Graco accounts for 1.0% of Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $17,986,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 293.1% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 3,801 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 2,834 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 33,862 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,358 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 16,363 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 1,856 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 244.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $174,210,000 after purchasing an additional 1,412,704 shares during the period. Finally, Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Graco during the 3rd quarter worth about $210,000. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GGG has been the topic of several research reports. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.00.

Graco Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE:GGG opened at $87.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a PE ratio of 31.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. Graco Inc. has a 12 month low of $77.49 and a 12 month high of $94.77. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $84.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.31.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a net margin of 23.00% and a return on equity of 19.38%. On average, research analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

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

Graco Company Profile

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.