Dundas Partners LLP Acquires 3,049 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Dundas Partners LLP increased its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 66.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,049 shares during the period. Dundas Partners LLP’s holdings in Graco were worth $606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Graco by 134.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares in the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG purchased a new stake in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter worth $111,428,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Graco by 213.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Graco in the first quarter valued at about $70,891,000. Finally, M&G Plc bought a new position in Graco in the first quarter worth about $44,069,000. 93.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Graco Price Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $84.88 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $82.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.79. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.78 and a 1-year high of $94.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.36 billion, a PE ratio of 29.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $553.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $562.27 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s payout ratio is 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.