Stiles Financial Services Inc Grows Stock Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Stiles Financial Services Inc grew its position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 17,192 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 738 shares during the quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,504,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGG. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Graco in the third quarter valued at $210,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in 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 in the last quarter. M&G PLC grew its stake in Graco by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 511,037 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $44,971,000 after purchasing an additional 27,502 shares in the last quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC grew its stake in Graco by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter. D.B. Root & Company LLC now owns 14,197 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its stake in Graco by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 95,556 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $8,362,000 after purchasing an additional 3,122 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 27,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,406,094.26. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Graco Stock Performance

NYSE:GGG opened at $86.99 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $84.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.33. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $76.28 and a one year high of $94.77. The company has a market capitalization of $14.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.82.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last issued 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 net margin of 22.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The company had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $538.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 21st. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. Graco’s payout ratio is 36.04%.

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.