Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.28

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 14th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%.

Graco has raised its dividend by an average of 10.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a payout ratio of 34.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Graco to earn $3.25 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 33.8%.

Graco Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Graco stock opened at $85.84 on Friday. Graco has a 1 year low of $77.49 and a 1 year high of $94.77. The company has a market cap of $14.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $84.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.80.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, January 27th. The industrial products company reported $0.64 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, equities analysts forecast that Graco will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GGG has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price 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, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Graco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.57, for a total transaction of $749,919.60. Following the sale, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total transaction of $137,888.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,374 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $575,572.20. The trade was a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.