Graco Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.28 (NYSE:GGG)

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%.

Graco has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a payout ratio of 34.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Graco to earn $3.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.8%.

Graco Stock Down 0.3 %

GGG stock opened at $85.84 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $84.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.80. Graco has a 52-week low of $77.49 and a 52-week high of $94.77. The firm has a market cap of $14.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. On average, analysts anticipate that Graco will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graco

In other news, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total transaction of $137,888.10. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at $575,572.20. This trade represents a 19.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total transaction of $749,919.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 57,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,217,918.84. This represents a 12.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $91.50.

Graco Company 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.