Madison Investment Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 453,186 Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 453,186 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $38,199,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC owned about 0.27% of Graco as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 419,942 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $36,749,000 after buying an additional 13,876 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 254.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 195,533 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $17,111,000 after buying an additional 140,417 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 328,306 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $28,730,000 after buying an additional 8,485 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 32.0% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,545,846 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $130,298,000 after buying an additional 374,967 shares during the period. Finally, PineStone Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Graco by 2.7% in the 4th 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GGG. DA Davidson set a $85.00 target price on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Graco from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Graco currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $93.00.

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Graco Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GGG opened at $83.85 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $14.21 billion, a PE ratio of 29.73, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. The company's 50 day moving average price is $84.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $85.46. Graco Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.49 and a 12-month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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, research analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. Graco's payout ratio is currently 39.01%.

Graco 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.

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