Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Trims Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc reduced its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 706,679 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 16,193 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.42% of Graco worth $56,026,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 134.4% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG purchased a new position in shares of Graco in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $111,428,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 213.3% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,257,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $109,136,000 after purchasing an additional 856,460 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Graco in the first quarter valued at approximately $70,891,000. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Graco during the first quarter worth approximately $44,069,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GGG. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.80.

Graco Trading Down 1.5 %

GGG stock opened at $84.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $82.03 and a 200-day moving average of $83.94. Graco Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.78 and a 12-month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. Graco had a return on equity of 22.40% and a net margin of 23.16%. The company had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 earnings per share. Graco’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.17%.

Graco Profile

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.