Evergreen Capital Management LLC Makes New $209,000 Investment in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Evergreen Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,640 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GGG. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Graco by 134.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG purchased a new stake in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter valued at $111,428,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter worth $70,891,000. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Graco in the 1st quarter worth $44,069,000. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in Graco by 106.0% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 845,535 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $73,359,000 after acquiring an additional 435,017 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Graco Stock Performance

Graco stock opened at $87.64 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $69.78 and a one year high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.17%.

Graco Company 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.