RIA Advisory Group LLC Invests $278,000 in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

RIA Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,178 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $278,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Graco by 671.9% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,320 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its position in Graco by 9.8% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 4,950 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Graco by 3.8% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 177,706 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,608,000 after purchasing an additional 6,563 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of Graco by 20.0% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 92,942 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,686,000 after purchasing an additional 15,480 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 17,900 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,673,000 after buying an additional 1,499 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GGG shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of 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 reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price target on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graco currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.25.

Graco Price Performance

NYSE GGG traded up $0.45 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $89.62. 2,338,047 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 742,854. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $85.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $82.45. Graco Inc. has a 1 year low of $77.49 and a 1 year high of $94.77. The company has a market cap of $15.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.82.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. The firm had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Graco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.04%.

Insider Activity at Graco

In related news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total value of $284,004.96. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at $2,406,094.26. The trade was a 10.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.