Dearborn Partners LLC Cuts Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Dearborn Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,659 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 172 shares during the period. Dearborn Partners LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $233,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Vident Advisory LLC increased its position in Graco by 567.4% during the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after buying an additional 36,471 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc increased its holdings in shares of Graco by 2.0% during the second quarter. M&G Plc now owns 483,535 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $38,199,000 after acquiring an additional 9,673 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Graco by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 884,912 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $82,683,000 after purchasing an additional 24,827 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in Graco by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 92,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $8,686,000 after purchasing an additional 15,480 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Graco during the 3rd quarter valued at about $876,000. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Activity at Graco

In other Graco news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total value of $284,004.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at $2,406,094.26. This represents a 10.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Graco Price Performance

NYSE GGG opened at $89.62 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.82. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $77.49 and a 1-year high of $94.77. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $85.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $82.45.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. Graco’s payout ratio is 36.04%.

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.