Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Purchases 4,948 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - Free Report) by 4.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,459 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 4,948 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 0.06% of Graco worth $9,227,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GGG. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Graco by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,141,579 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,444,864,000 after acquiring an additional 183,335 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Graco by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,229,385 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $356,053,000 after purchasing an additional 77,093 shares in the last quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Graco by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,904,681 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $244,836,000 after buying an additional 76,184 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Graco by 17.0% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,328,179 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $196,242,000 after buying an additional 337,437 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter worth $177,434,000. 93.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson set a $85.00 target price on Graco in a report on Friday, January 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $93.00.

Graco Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of GGG traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.08. The stock had a trading volume of 659,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 816,027. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $84.46. The firm has a market cap of $13.72 billion, a PE ratio of 29.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.09. Graco Inc. has a one year low of $72.06 and a one year high of $92.86.

Graco (NYSE:GGG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.02. Graco had a net margin of 23.00% and a return on equity of 19.38%. The firm had revenue of $528.28 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $526.98 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.65 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. Graco's dividend payout ratio is 38.87%.

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.