Acadian Asset Management LLC Grows Holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 2.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 884,912 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 24,827 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $82,683,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Graco by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,229,664 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,494,846,000 after buying an additional 144,146 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Graco by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,118,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $270,579,000 after buying an additional 498,724 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its stake in Graco by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,802,128 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $156,353,000 after buying an additional 71,788 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Graco in the 4th quarter worth approximately $152,941,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in 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 worth $134,618,000 after buying an additional 182,470 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on GGG. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Graco from $90.00 to $87.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $103.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Graco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.75.

Graco Price Performance

GGG traded down $0.71 during trading on Friday, hitting $81.96. 683,411 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 837,442. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $80.45 and a 200 day moving average of $85.46. Graco Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.78 and a 12-month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The industrial products company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.74 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $492.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $536.19 million. Graco had a net margin of 23.15% and a return on equity of 23.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 3.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.255 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 22nd. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 35.17%.

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.