Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Insider Sells $284,004.96 in Stock

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total transaction of $284,004.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at $2,406,094.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Graco Stock Performance

NYSE GGG traded down $1.20 on Thursday, hitting $87.56. 735,267 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 732,268. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.82. Graco Inc. has a 52-week low of $76.28 and a 52-week high of $94.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $84.18 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.29.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were given a $0.255 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.16%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on GGG shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Four 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, Graco currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in 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 valued at $330,532,000 after purchasing an additional 2,390,602 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Graco by 244.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,412,704 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Graco by 5.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 91,794 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Graco by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,440,378 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $134,618,000 after purchasing an additional 182,470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 32.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,069,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,775,000 after buying an additional 259,819 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

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.