Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA Takes $215,000 Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA acquired a new stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its position 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. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at about $152,941,000. Flossbach Von Storch AG purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the first quarter valued at about $111,428,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Graco by 213.3% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,257,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $109,136,000 after buying an additional 856,460 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the first quarter valued at about $70,891,000. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $82.12 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $13.89 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.81. Graco Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.78 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.38 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $84.27.

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

Graco Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GGG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com cut shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.