Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Decreases Stake in Graco Inc. $GGG

by · The Cerbat Gem

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp cut its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG – Free Report) by 11.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 104,433 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 13,710 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Graco were worth $8,978,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Graco during the second quarter worth about $170,661,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Graco by 116.8% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 735,146 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $63,201,000 after acquiring an additional 396,125 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 572.1% during the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 437,661 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,549,000 after acquiring an additional 372,543 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,911,372 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $336,261,000 after acquiring an additional 326,877 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Graco in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,540,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Graco Stock Up 1.1%

GGG opened at $84.46 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $14.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $81.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.16. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $72.06 and a 52 week high of $89.67.

Graco (NYSE:GGG – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 22nd. The industrial products company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.75 by ($0.02). Graco had a net margin of 22.72% and a return on equity of 18.89%. The firm had revenue of $543.36 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $563.07 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 4th. Investors of record on Monday, January 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.295 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This is a positive change from Graco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 37.54%.

Graco declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, December 5th that allows the company to repurchase 15,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to repurchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on GGG. KeyCorp reiterated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Graco in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Graco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $89.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.00.

Read Our Latest Analysis on GGG

Graco Profile

(Free Report)

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.

See Also

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