Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,300,000 shares, a decrease of 5.8% from the September 30th total of 1,380,000 shares. Approximately 0.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 721,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Graco

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGG. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Graco by 134.4% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG bought a new position in Graco in the first quarter valued at about $111,428,000. M&G Plc bought a new position in Graco in the first quarter valued at about $44,069,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Graco in the second quarter valued at about $27,502,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in Graco by 54.2% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 814,321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $64,502,000 after acquiring an additional 286,212 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on GGG shares. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG stock remained flat at $81.61 during trading hours on Thursday. The stock had a trading volume of 299,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 729,808. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $83.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.45. The firm has a market cap of $13.80 billion, a PE ratio of 28.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.81. Graco has a 12 month low of $73.03 and a 12 month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $519.21 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 22.40% and a net margin of 23.16%. Graco’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Graco will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Investors of record on Monday, October 21st will be issued a $0.255 dividend. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is 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.