M&G Plc Has $44.97 Million Stake in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

M&G Plc raised its position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 5.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 511,037 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 27,502 shares during the period. M&G Plc’s holdings in Graco were worth $44,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GGG. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Graco by 134.4% in the 2nd quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,169,176 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $330,532,000 after acquiring an additional 2,390,602 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Graco by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,732,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $137,361,000 after acquiring an additional 91,794 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $134,618,000 after acquiring an additional 182,470 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Graco by 32.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,069,292 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,775,000 after acquiring an additional 259,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Graco by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 962,163 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $76,280,000 after acquiring an additional 33,563 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 price objective on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graco has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.25.

Graco Price Performance

NYSE GGG opened at $88.75 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $84.18 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.29. The firm has a market cap of $14.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.36, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.82. Graco Inc. has a 1 year low of $76.28 and a 1 year high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last issued its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.19 million. Graco had a return on equity of 21.24% and a net margin of 22.87%. Graco’s quarterly revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.76 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Graco Inc. will post 2.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 6th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 21st were issued a dividend of $0.255 per share. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, October 21st. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.04%.

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.