Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA Takes Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Mitchell Sinkler & Starr PA purchased a new stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Gradient Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter valued at $43,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Graco by 220.9% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 690 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tobam grew its position in shares of Graco by 90.2% during the 1st quarter. Tobam now owns 601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GGG shares. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $82.00 to $79.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $87.00 to $86.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.80.

Graco Stock Up 0.4 %

Graco stock opened at $82.12 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.89 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.81. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $81.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.27. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $69.78 and a twelve month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $553.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $562.27 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.16% and a return on equity of 22.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 22nd were paid a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, July 22nd. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.17%.

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.