William Blair Investment Management LLC Raises Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 58.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 397,303 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 146,042 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.24% of Graco worth $33,489,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 6.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $652,736,000 after acquiring an additional 443,141 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 4.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,152,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $362,808,000 after acquiring an additional 188,579 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,904,681 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $244,836,000 after acquiring an additional 76,184 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,328,179 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $196,242,000 after acquiring an additional 337,437 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Graco by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,664,427 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $140,295,000 after acquiring an additional 70,927 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GGG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. DA Davidson set a $85.00 price target on Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.00.

Graco Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $83.47 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $84.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.52. Graco Inc. has a 52-week low of $77.49 and a 52-week high of $94.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.60, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.01%.

Graco 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.