Valley Wealth Managers Inc. Lowers Stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Valley Wealth Managers Inc. lessened its position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 8.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,830 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 367 shares during the period. Valley Wealth Managers Inc.’s holdings in Graco were worth $304,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GGG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Graco by 0.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 144,146 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 134.4% in 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 buying an additional 2,390,602 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in shares of Graco by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,802,128 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $156,353,000 after buying an additional 71,788 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Graco during the fourth quarter worth about $152,941,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 91,794 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Graco Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:GGG opened at $83.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.04 billion, a PE ratio of 28.65, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.81. Graco Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.78 and a 1 year high of $94.77. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.21.

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, beating 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 company had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Graco

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.