Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Holdings Lowered by Magnetar Financial LLC

Magnetar Financial LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 7.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,145 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 249 shares during the quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 1,010.8% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 55,886 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,223,000 after purchasing an additional 50,855 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 567.4% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 42,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,009,000 after purchasing an additional 36,471 shares during the last quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at $6,412,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at $1,606,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Graco by 14.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 182,470 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GGG has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, April 26th. DA Davidson cut their price target on Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Graco presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $86.80.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG traded up $0.27 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $84.69. 44,472 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 736,532. The stock has a market cap of $14.31 billion, a PE ratio of 29.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s fifty day moving average is $80.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.44. Graco Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.78 and a fifty-two week high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $553.20 million for 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%. The company’s revenue was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 22nd will be issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 22nd. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.