NovaPoint Capital LLC Purchases 750 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

NovaPoint Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 19.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,650 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 750 shares during the quarter. NovaPoint Capital LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $392,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GGG. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 6.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $652,736,000 after purchasing an additional 443,141 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,152,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $362,808,000 after acquiring an additional 188,579 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Graco by 244.4% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $174,210,000 after acquiring an additional 1,412,704 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 4.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,111,152 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $97,237,000 after purchasing an additional 43,923 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Port Capital LLC lifted its position in Graco by 0.3% during the third quarter. Port Capital LLC now owns 783,483 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $68,563,000 after purchasing an additional 2,125 shares during the period. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.50.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of Graco stock opened at $84.64 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $85.57 and its 200 day moving average is $84.69. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $77.49 and a one year high of $94.77. The stock has a market cap of $14.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a net margin of 23.00% and a return on equity of 19.38%. Analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Graco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, January 20th were given a $0.275 dividend. This is a positive change from Graco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 17th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.01%.

Insider Transactions at Graco

In related news, insider Peter J. O’shea sold 18,075 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total value of $1,604,337.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,516 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,288,440.16. The trade was a 55.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total value of $137,888.10. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at $575,572.20. This trade represents a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 27,882 shares of company stock valued at $2,492,145 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.