W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) Receives $1,071.38 Average PT from Brokerages

Shares of W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $1,071.3750.

GWW has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on W.W. Grainger from $1,250.00 to $1,300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on W.W. Grainger from $1,100.00 to $1,165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on W.W. Grainger from $1,100.00 to $1,190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded W.W. Grainger from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at W.W. Grainger

In other news, VP Krantz Nancy L. Berardinelli sold 195 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,023.93, for a total value of $199,666.35. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 3,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,249,953.82. This represents a 5.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GWW. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in W.W. Grainger by 1,462.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,071,854 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,081,554,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003,237 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of W.W. Grainger during the third quarter worth about $721,202,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of W.W. Grainger during the second quarter worth about $536,916,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in W.W. Grainger by 34,269.9% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 435,466 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $439,407,000 after purchasing an additional 434,199 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in W.W. Grainger by 61.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,027,286 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,036,584,000 after purchasing an additional 389,589 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.70% of the company’s stock.

W.W. Grainger Stock Down 0.7%

GWW opened at $1,074.61 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. W.W. Grainger has a 1-year low of $893.99 and a 1-year high of $1,218.63. The company has a market capitalization of $50.86 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,102.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $1,021.18.

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The industrial products company reported $9.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $9.46 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $4.43 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.39 billion. W.W. Grainger had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 47.46%. The company’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $9.71 EPS. W.W. Grainger has set its FY 2026 guidance at 42.250-44.750 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that W.W. Grainger will post 40.3 EPS for the current year.

W.W. Grainger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $2.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 9th. This represents a $9.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. W.W. Grainger’s payout ratio is currently 25.54%.

W.W. Grainger Company Profile

W.W. Grainger, Inc (NYSE: GWW) is an industrial supply distributor founded in 1927 and headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois. The company supplies maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services to businesses, institutions and government customers. Over its long history Grainger has developed a broad product assortment and a national distribution network that supports operations across a range of end markets, including manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, transportation and public sector organizations.

Grainger’s product portfolio spans core categories such as electrical and lighting, safety and personal protective equipment, material handling, motors and power transmission, plumbing and HVAC, fasteners and adhesives, hand and power tools, and janitorial and facility supplies.