Welch Group LLC Decreases Holdings in Graco Inc. $GGG

Welch Group LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 13.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 20,653 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 3,138 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,776,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Graco by 9.1% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,911,372 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $336,261,000 after buying an additional 326,877 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Graco by 2.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,390,940 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $199,667,000 after buying an additional 62,761 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Graco by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,828,962 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $152,737,000 after purchasing an additional 28,795 shares during the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Graco by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,797,477 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $144,194,000 after purchasing an additional 120,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Graco by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,337,457 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $111,691,000 after purchasing an additional 146,424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on GGG. Wolfe Research began coverage on Graco in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Graco in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Graco from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Graco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $94.50.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $80.15 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $13.28 billion, a PE ratio of 28.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. Graco Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $72.06 and a fifty-two week high of $92.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $84.78 and a 200-day moving average of $84.07.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.78 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $571.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $590.57 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.26% and a return on equity of 19.05%. Graco’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, October 20th. Graco’s payout ratio is presently 39.01%.

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.