30,567 Shares in Graco Inc. $GGG Acquired by SWS Partners

SWS Partners purchased a new position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 30,567 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,311,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Graco by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,813,877 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $640,503,000 after purchasing an additional 242,817 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,652,241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $380,642,000 after buying an additional 261,126 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Graco by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,057,036 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $332,556,000 after buying an additional 206,949 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Graco by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 2,076,887 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $176,016,000 after buying an additional 53,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Graco during the 4th quarter worth approximately $161,949,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Graco Stock Down 0.4%

GGG opened at $81.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $77.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.22. Graco Inc. has a 52-week low of $72.51 and a 52-week high of $95.69.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $590.55 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $608.06 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.53% and a return on equity of 19.54%. Graco’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 3.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 20th were issued a $0.295 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 20th. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.11%.

About Graco

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.