W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.80 per share on Friday, March 1st. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GWW shares. Analysts at UBS AG raised their price target on shares of W.W. Grainger from $202.00 to $213.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock. On the ratings front, analysts at Longbow Research reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of W.W. Grainger in a research note to investors on Monday. They now have a $225.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Barclays Capital raised their price target on shares of W.W. Grainger from $220.00 to $240.00 in a research note to investors on Friday, January 25th. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.

Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, two have assigned an overweight rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, and one has assigned a sell rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of “overweight” and an average target price of $228.64.

Shares of W.W. Grainger (GWW) traded down 0.43% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $217.67. W.W. Grainger (GWW) has a 52 week low of $172.50 and a 52 week high of $221.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $203.8. The company has a market cap of $15.123 billion and a P/E ratio of 22.96.

W.W. Grainger last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 24th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.61 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. W.W. Grainger has set its FY13 guidance at $10.85-12.00 EPS. On average, analysts predict that W.W. Grainger (GWW) will post $11.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.W. Grainger, Inc. (Grainger) is a distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies and other related products and services used by businesses and institutions primarily in the United States and Canada.

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