Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New Investment in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,400 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 16.2% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 4,198 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $306,000 after buying an additional 585 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 24.0% during the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 147,612 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $10,758,000 after buying an additional 28,589 shares during the period. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI boosted its stake in shares of Graco by 179.4% during the fourth quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 77,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,756,000 after buying an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Secure Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter worth about $2,026,000. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Graco during the fourth quarter worth about $4,112,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GGG. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Graco from $91.00 to $93.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Graco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Graco from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Graco currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.80.

Graco Stock Performance

NYSE:GGG traded down $0.65 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $88.42. The stock had a trading volume of 578,574 shares, compared to its average volume of 654,819. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.81. Graco Inc. has a twelve month low of $68.78 and a twelve month high of $94.77. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $91.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.29.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 29th. The industrial products company reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.01. Graco had a net margin of 23.07% and a return on equity of 24.61%. The company had revenue of $566.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $565.86 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of $0.255 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Graco’s payout ratio is 34.69%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Timothy R. White sold 2,895 shares of Graco stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $253,283.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,442,917.18. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Graco news, insider Timothy R. White sold 2,500 shares of Graco stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.82, for a total value of $232,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 48,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,481,535.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Timothy R. White sold 2,895 shares of Graco stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.49, for a total transaction of $253,283.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,442,917.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 48,378 shares of company stock worth $4,376,528. Company insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

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.