Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Stock Holdings Lessened by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. reduced its holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 2.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 12,764 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 372 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,076,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GGG. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in Graco by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 419,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $36,749,000 after purchasing an additional 13,876 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Graco by 254.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 195,533 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,111,000 after purchasing an additional 140,417 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Graco by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 328,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,730,000 after purchasing an additional 8,485 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in Graco by 32.0% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,545,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $130,298,000 after purchasing an additional 374,967 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Graco by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,904,681 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $244,836,000 after purchasing an additional 76,184 shares during the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in 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 lifted 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 upgraded 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. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.00.

Graco Trading Up 1.5 %

GGG stock opened at $83.96 on Friday. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.49 and a 52 week high of $94.77. The company has a market capitalization of $14.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $84.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.44.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.01%.

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.