Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $94.00.

GGG has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Graco in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Graco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $89.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, October 24th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Graco

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Entropy Technologies LP increased its position in Graco by 59.4% during the first quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 16,677 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,393,000 after purchasing an additional 6,216 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Graco by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,069,869 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,345,000 after buying an additional 14,903 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 55.4% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 27,513 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,298,000 after buying an additional 9,811 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Graco by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 293,211 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $24,486,000 after buying an additional 68,084 shares during the period. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new position in Graco in the second quarter valued at $3,806,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $82.38 on Monday. Graco has a 1-year low of $72.06 and a 1-year high of $92.86. The stock has a market cap of $13.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.43.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $543.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $563.07 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.72% and a return on equity of 18.89%. Graco’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Graco will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 20th were issued a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 20th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Graco’s payout ratio is 37.54%.

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.