Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Sells 9,969 Shares of Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lowered its position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) by 20.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 38,107 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,969 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Graco were worth $3,212,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GGG. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of Graco by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 14,548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,226,000 after purchasing an additional 138 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in Graco by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 101,103 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $8,522,000 after buying an additional 15,806 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Graco by 15.4% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 85,012 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,166,000 after buying an additional 11,332 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in Graco in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,138,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Graco during the 4th quarter worth $177,434,000. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GGG has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Graco from $93.00 to $97.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. BNP Paribas raised Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $85.00 target price on shares of Graco in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $93.00.

Graco Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of Graco stock opened at $83.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.62. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $77.49 and a 52 week high of $93.25.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Graco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Monday, April 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 14th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. Graco’s payout ratio is 39.01%.

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.