Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Boosts Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 80,190 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 2,041 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Graco were worth $6,357,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Graco by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,229,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,494,846,000 after buying an additional 144,146 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Graco by 134.4% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after buying an additional 2,390,602 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of Graco by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,802,128 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $156,353,000 after purchasing an additional 71,788 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $152,941,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Graco by 5.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,732,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $137,361,000 after purchasing an additional 91,794 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Graco Trading Down 0.0 %

Graco stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $82.36. The company had a trading volume of 91,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 734,654. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.73. Graco Inc. has a 12 month low of $69.78 and a 12 month high of $94.77. The company has a market capitalization of $13.93 billion, a PE ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.82.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.01. Graco had a return on equity of 22.40% and a net margin of 23.16%. The business had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 EPS for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 22nd were paid a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 22nd. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on GGG. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Graco currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.80.

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.