GAMMA Investing LLC Boosts Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 19.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,861 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 464 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $250,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 144,146 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 134.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,602 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in 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 worth $137,361,000 after buying an additional 91,794 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Graco by 14.5% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,440,378 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,618,000 after buying an additional 182,470 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch AG acquired a new stake in Graco during the first quarter valued at $111,428,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GGG. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graco has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.25.

Graco Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Graco stock opened at $84.98 on Friday. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.78 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.37 billion, a PE ratio of 29.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $82.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.31.

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

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be given a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.17%.

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.