Intech Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 774.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 53,679 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,540 shares during the quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $4,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Graco by 0.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 4.1% in 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 during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 91,794 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 182,470 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GGG. 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. StockNews.com cut Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their price objective on Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.80.

Graco Trading Down 1.5 %

GGG stock opened at $84.59 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $82.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.94. 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 $14.31 billion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.81.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $562.27 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.16% and a return on equity of 22.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be given a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.