Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.28 Per Share

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, January 20th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, February 5th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. This is a boost from Graco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26.

Graco has increased its dividend payment by an average of 10.8% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 29 years. Graco has a dividend payout ratio of 33.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Graco to earn $3.06 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 35.9%.

Graco Stock Up 1.5 %

GGG stock opened at $83.07 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $87.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.20. The firm has a market cap of $14.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.84. Graco has a 12 month low of $77.49 and a 12 month high of $94.77.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.05). Graco had a net margin of 22.87% and a return on equity of 21.24%. The firm had revenue of $519.21 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $538.19 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Graco will post 2.89 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on GGG shares. BNP Paribas upgraded Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $79.00 target price on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, September 27th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four equities research 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $91.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Graco

In other news, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total transaction of $749,919.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 57,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,217,918.84. This trade represents a 12.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider David J. Thompson sold 3,216 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.31, for a total transaction of $284,004.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 27,246 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,406,094.26. This represents a 10.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 31,098 shares of company stock worth $2,776,150. 2.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.