JLB & Associates Inc. Makes New Investment in Graco Inc. $GGG

JLB & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 189,294 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,312,000. Graco makes up 1.9% of JLB & Associates Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Graco in the second quarter worth approximately $1,396,470,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Graco in the 4th quarter valued at $161,949,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 2nd quarter worth $97,625,000. Bank of Montreal Can grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 1,636.9% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,011,196 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $82,888,000 after purchasing an additional 952,977 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec increased its position in shares of Graco by 236.4% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 1,279,553 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $108,711,000 after purchasing an additional 899,174 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GGG. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Monday, July 27th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Graco from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $94.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Graco from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Graco from $92.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.00.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of Graco stock opened at $81.09 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $77.33 and a 200 day moving average of $82.10. Graco Inc. has a 12 month low of $72.51 and a 12 month high of $95.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.92.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $590.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $608.06 million. Graco had a return on equity of 19.54% and a net margin of 23.53%.Graco’s revenue was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 5th. Investors of record on Monday, July 20th were issued a $0.295 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 20th. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Graco’s payout ratio is 37.11%.

Graco Company Profile

Graco Inc is a leading manufacturer of fluid handling systems and components, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1926, the company has built a reputation for innovation in spray finishing, lubrication, and fluid management technologies. Graco’s solutions are designed to address the needs of paint and coatings applicators, general industry, and process fluids in a variety of end markets.

The company’s product portfolio includes airless and air-assisted spray equipment, pumps for oil and gas applications, industrial lubrication systems, and automated dispensing equipment.