M&T Bank Corp Raises Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

M&T Bank Corp lifted its stake in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - Free Report) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 63,879 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 7,832 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp's holdings in Graco were worth $5,384,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Graco by 6.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $652,736,000 after acquiring an additional 443,141 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Graco by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,152,292 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $362,808,000 after acquiring an additional 188,579 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in 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 worth $244,836,000 after buying an additional 76,184 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Graco by 17.0% during the 4th 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 last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Graco by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,664,427 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $140,295,000 after purchasing an additional 70,927 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GGG. BNP Paribas upgraded Graco from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $105.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, DA Davidson set a $85.00 target price on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Graco has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $93.00.

Graco Stock Performance

NYSE:GGG traded up $1.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $87.60. The stock had a trading volume of 944,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 825,903. The stock has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.06, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $84.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.39. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $77.49 and a twelve month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.77 by ($0.13). Graco had a return on equity of 19.38% and a net margin of 23.00%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share 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 issued a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. Graco's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.01%.

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.