Graco Inc. $GGG Stake Decreased by Russell Investments Group Ltd.

Russell Investments Group Ltd. reduced its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 4.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,041,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 52,007 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Graco were worth $80,040,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGG. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 2nd quarter valued at $16,632,000. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in Graco in the 2nd quarter worth $6,051,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new stake in Graco during the second quarter valued at about $100,157,000. Amundi raised its holdings in Graco by 7.5% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 2,090,184 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $158,039,000 after acquiring an additional 146,032 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Graco in the second quarter valued at about $57,954,000. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GGG. Robert W. Baird set a $80.00 price objective on Graco in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on Graco from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $82.00 price target (down from $95.00) on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Graco in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Graco presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.40.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of GGG traded up $0.00 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $72.44. 1,684,383 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,114,021. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $75.09 and a 200-day moving average of $80.23. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.96 and a 52 week high of $95.69. The stock has a market cap of $11.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.12.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The industrial products company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $586.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $590.17 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.40% and a return on equity of 20.13%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 3.20 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 19th were given a dividend of $0.2950 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 19th. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 37.94%.

Graco Profile

Graco Inc. designs, manufactures and markets equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense and spray fluid and coating materials. Its products include pumps, meters, fluid-handling systems and spray equipment used with paints, coatings, sealants, lubricants and other materials. The company serves customers in industrial and process markets, as well as contractors working in areas such as painting, building maintenance and surface preparation. Graco sells its products worldwide through a network that includes distributors and direct sales.