Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Plans $0.26 Quarterly Dividend

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, June 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, July 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.255 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 22nd.

Graco has raised its dividend by an average of 10.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a payout ratio of 31.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Graco to earn $3.26 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.02 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.3%.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of Graco stock opened at $80.13 on Tuesday. Graco has a fifty-two week low of $69.78 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77. The company has a market cap of $13.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.23.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $492.19 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $536.19 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.15% and a return on equity of 23.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Graco will post 3.05 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on GGG shares. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, April 26th. StockNews.com lowered Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Graco from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $88.25.

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.