Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) EVP Sells $137,888.10 in Stock

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total transaction of $137,888.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at $575,572.20. This represents a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Graco Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GGG traded down $0.05 on Wednesday, reaching $90.56. 472,794 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 751,550. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.49 and a 1-year high of $94.77. The firm has a market cap of $15.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a 50-day moving average of $86.16 and a 200-day moving average of $82.84.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The company had revenue of $519.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.19 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st were given a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.13%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Graco

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Graco by 6.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $652,736,000 after buying an additional 443,141 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Graco by 134.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $330,532,000 after buying an additional 2,390,602 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Graco by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,152,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $362,808,000 after buying an additional 188,579 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Graco by 244.4% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $174,210,000 after buying an additional 1,412,704 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Graco by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,732,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $137,361,000 after buying an additional 91,794 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GGG. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.25.

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.