Forsta AP Fonden Has $2.51 Million Position in Graco Inc. $GGG

Forsta AP Fonden lessened its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 62.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 47,600 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Graco were worth $2,510,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GGG. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 55.4% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 27,513 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,298,000 after buying an additional 9,811 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its position in Graco by 72.4% during the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,908 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in Graco by 8.2% during the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,135 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $262,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Formidable Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Graco by 7.6% during the first quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 8,376 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $699,000 after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its position in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the first quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 6,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $530,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GGG. Weiss Ratings downgraded Graco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird set a $89.00 price objective on Graco in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Graco in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.00.

Graco Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $80.07 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.33, a PEG ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 1.08. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $72.06 and a one year high of $92.86.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.02). Graco had a return on equity of 18.89% and a net margin of 22.72%.The business had revenue of $543.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $563.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 5th. Investors of record on Monday, October 20th were paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 20th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. Graco’s payout ratio is presently 37.54%.

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.