Federated Hermes Inc. Lowers Position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Posted by MarketBeat News on Mar 12th, 2023

Federated Hermes Inc. trimmed its holdings in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG – Get Rating) by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,783 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,879 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Graco were worth $1,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Graco by 0.4% in the third quarter. Taylor Hoffman Wealth Management now owns 39,207 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,350,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its position in shares of Graco by 3.0% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 6,270 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $437,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Graco by 3.2% in the first quarter. SkyView Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,076 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $563,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Graco by 2.1% in the first quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 9,444 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $659,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of Graco by 1.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 19,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,325,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. 85.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GGG has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Graco from $66.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Graco from $74.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 14th. StockNews.com raised Graco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Graco from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $73.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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In other Graco news, Director Eric Etchart sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total transaction of $431,400.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 31,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,271,824.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Eric Etchart sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.90, for a total transaction of $431,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 31,597 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,271,824.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO David M. Lowe sold 31,128 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.17, for a total value of $2,184,251.76. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 601,770 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,226,200.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,948 shares of company stock valued at $4,096,787 over the last ninety days. 3.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Graco Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE GGG opened at $67.65 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $69.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 3.01 and a quick ratio of 1.82. Graco Inc. has a 1-year low of $56.48 and a 1-year high of $72.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.34, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.78.

Graco (NYSE:GGG – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 31st. The industrial products company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.04. Graco had a return on equity of 25.67% and a net margin of 21.49%. The company had revenue of $555.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $556.72 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Graco Inc. will post 2.78 EPS for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 3rd. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.235 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 14th. This represents a $0.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. Graco’s payout ratio is currently 35.21%.

About Graco

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Graco, Inc is a manufacturing company, which designs, manufactures and markets systems and equipment used to move, measure, control, dispense and spray fluid and powder materials. It operates through the following segments: Industrial, Contractor and Process. The Industrial segment includes the Applied Fluid Technologies and Industrial Products divisions.