Aurora Private Wealth Inc. Buys Shares of 11,890 Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Aurora Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 11,890 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $993,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GGG. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $177,434,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 26,738.4% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,841,916 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $155,255,000 after purchasing an additional 1,835,053 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 36.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,929,952 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $162,676,000 after purchasing an additional 518,462 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 76.0% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,147,341 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $96,709,000 after purchasing an additional 495,293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 48.1% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,497,164 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $126,196,000 after purchasing an additional 486,277 shares during the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Graco in a report on Wednesday, June 18th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $93.00.

Graco Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GGG traded up $0.30 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $88.79. 466,993 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 802,190. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $84.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $83.81. The firm has a market cap of $14.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.37, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.06. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $72.06 and a twelve month high of $92.86.

Graco (NYSE:GGG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $528.28 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $526.98 million. Graco had a return on equity of 19.42% and a net margin of 22.70%. The business's revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, July 21st will be given a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 21st. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Graco's dividend payout ratio is presently 38.87%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,588 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.23, for a total transaction of $309,393.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 27,520 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,373,049.60. The trade was a 11.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.19% of the company's stock.

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.