AE Wealth Management LLC Acquires 26,987 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

AE Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 29.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 118,342 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,987 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $9,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 35.5% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 4,509 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $391,000 after acquiring an additional 1,182 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Graco during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $152,941,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its position in shares of Graco by 38.8% in the fourth quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 7,214 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $626,000 after purchasing an additional 2,017 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 106.4% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 32,521 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,822,000 after buying an additional 16,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 38.2% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 8,996 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $780,000 after buying an additional 2,488 shares during the period. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GGG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com cut Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price target on Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.80.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $84.52 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.99. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $69.78 and a 52 week high of $94.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.81.

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 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 firm had revenue of $553.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $562.27 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st will be given a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.17%.

Graco Company 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.