Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys Shares of 3,016 Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 3,016 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its holdings in Graco by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 419,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,749,000 after acquiring an additional 13,876 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Graco by 254.8% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 195,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $17,111,000 after purchasing an additional 140,417 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Graco by 2.7% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 328,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,730,000 after purchasing an additional 8,485 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its position in Graco by 25.8% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 31,991 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,800,000 after purchasing an additional 6,571 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graco in the 3rd quarter valued at about $876,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GGG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.50.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG stock opened at $85.62 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.25, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.84. Graco Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $77.49 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.57.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 20th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. This is a positive change from Graco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.87%.

Insider Activity

In other Graco news, insider Peter J. O’shea sold 18,075 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total value of $1,604,337.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,288,440.16. This represents a 55.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total transaction of $137,888.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $575,572.20. This trade represents a 19.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,098 shares of company stock worth $2,776,150 over the last three months. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Graco 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.