River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP Acquires 460 Shares of W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW)

River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP grew its holdings in W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW – Get Rating) by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,260 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 460 shares during the period. River & Mercantile Asset Management LLP’s holdings in W.W. Grainger were worth $888,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in W.W. Grainger by 2.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,558,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,719,249,000 after acquiring an additional 116,455 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 3.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,192,981 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,072,784,000 after purchasing an additional 80,677 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 0.9% in the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 691,001 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $314,012,000 after purchasing an additional 6,189 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 5.1% in the second quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 499,883 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $227,162,000 after purchasing an additional 24,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 1.7% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 476,896 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $216,717,000 after purchasing an additional 7,994 shares in the last quarter. 71.76% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at W.W. Grainger

In other news, CFO Deidra C. Merriwether sold 4,623 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $664.66, for a total value of $3,072,723.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 7,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,054,739.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Deidra C. Merriwether sold 4,623 shares of W.W. Grainger stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $664.66, for a total transaction of $3,072,723.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 7,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,054,739.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Donald G. Macpherson sold 49,121 shares of W.W. Grainger stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $694.36, for a total transaction of $34,107,657.56. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 80,240 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $55,715,446.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 55,434 shares of company stock worth $38,315,317. 10.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GWW. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of W.W. Grainger from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $502.00 to $679.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of W.W. Grainger from $695.00 to $800.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of W.W. Grainger in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of W.W. Grainger from $650.00 to $730.00 in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of W.W. Grainger from $490.00 to $537.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $688.88.

W.W. Grainger Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GWW opened at $681.33 on Friday. W.W. Grainger, Inc. has a 52 week low of $440.48 and a 52 week high of $709.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.66, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $632.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $583.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The industrial products company reported $7.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $6.97 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $3.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.81 billion. W.W. Grainger had a net margin of 10.14% and a return on equity of 60.13%. The business’s revenue was up 13.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.44 EPS. On average, analysts expect that W.W. Grainger, Inc. will post 33.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

W.W. Grainger Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 13th were issued a $1.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 10th. This represents a $6.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. W.W. Grainger’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.88%.

W.W. Grainger Profile

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W.W. Grainger, Inc operates as a supplier of maintenance, repair and operating products (MRO), with operations also in Europe, Asia and Latin America. It operates through two segments: United States and Canada. The United States segment offers a selection of MRO products and services through its eCommerce platforms, catalogs, branches and sales and service representatives.