Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.26

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, September 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.255 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 21st.

Graco has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a dividend payout ratio of 32.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Graco to earn $3.15 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.02 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.4%.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $85.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81. Graco has a fifty-two week low of $69.78 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $83.02.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $553.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $562.27 million. Graco had a return on equity of 22.40% and a net margin of 23.16%. Graco’s quarterly revenue was down 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Graco will post 2.98 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on GGG. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 26th. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 price target on shares of Graco in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.25.

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.