First Manhattan CO. LLC. Cuts Stock Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. lessened its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 323,709 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,514 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Graco were worth $27,285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Graco in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Graco by 118.0% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 351 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the period. National Pension Service acquired a new position in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in shares of Graco by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 484 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, DA Davidson set a $85.00 price objective on Graco in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.00.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of GGG stock opened at $83.72 on Friday. Graco Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.06 and a fifty-two week high of $92.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $81.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $84.44. The firm has a market cap of $13.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.69, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.09.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.02. Graco had a net margin of 23.00% and a return on equity of 19.38%. The firm had revenue of $528.28 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $526.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.65 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th were given a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 14th. Graco’s payout ratio is 38.87%.

About Graco

Graco Inc designs, manufactures, and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense, and spray fluid and powder materials worldwide. The Contractor segment offers sprayers to apply paint to walls and other structures; two-component proportioning systems that are used to spray polyurethane foam and polyurea coatings; and viscous coatings to roofs, as well as markings on roads, parking lots, athletic fields, and floors.