Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 374,340 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,553,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.22% of Graco as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Graco by 244.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $174,210,000 after acquiring an additional 1,412,704 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP increased its stake in shares of Graco by 359.2% in the 4th quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 640,474 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,986,000 after buying an additional 501,003 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Graco by 6.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $652,736,000 after purchasing an additional 443,141 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Graco by 142.9% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 652,048 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,061,000 after purchasing an additional 383,599 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Graco by 32.0% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,545,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $130,298,000 after acquiring an additional 374,967 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Graco Price Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $82.64 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.01 billion, a PE ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $77.49 and a one year high of $94.77. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $84.89 and a 200-day moving average of $85.46.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS 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%. Analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.01%.

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.