Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Receives $93.00 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) have been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $93.00.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th.

Institutional Trading of Graco

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its position in Graco by 3.4% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted 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 buying an additional 140,417 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $28,730,000 after buying an additional 8,485 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $130,298,000 after buying an additional 374,967 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,904,681 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $244,836,000 after buying an additional 76,184 shares during the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Graco Price Performance

GGG stock opened at $82.13 on Monday. Graco has a 52-week low of $77.49 and a 52-week high of $94.69. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $85.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts predict that Graco will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is 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.