Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Short Interest Up 7.8% in September

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,200,000 shares, an increase of 7.8% from the August 31st total of 2,040,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 818,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 price target on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Graco from $99.00 to $96.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Graco has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $86.80.

Institutional Trading of Graco

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGG. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,229,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,494,846,000 after purchasing an additional 144,146 shares during the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Graco by 134.4% during the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $330,532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Graco by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,732,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $137,361,000 after acquiring an additional 91,794 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $134,618,000 after purchasing an additional 182,470 shares during the period. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch AG bought a new stake in shares of Graco during the 1st quarter valued at about $111,428,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $86.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $82.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.55. The stock has a market cap of $14.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.81. Graco has a 52-week low of $69.78 and a 52-week high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.77 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.75 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Graco will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st will be paid a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio 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.