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

Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 6th,RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. This is a positive change from Graco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26.

Graco has increased its dividend by an average of 10.3% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 28 consecutive years. Graco has a dividend payout ratio of 33.2% meaning 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 $1.02 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.3%.

Graco Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:GGG opened at $89.52 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.83. Graco has a 52-week low of $77.49 and a 52-week high of $94.77. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $86.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.24.

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

Insider Activity at Graco

In other news, insider Peter J. O’shea sold 18,075 shares of Graco stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.76, for a total value of $1,604,337.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 14,516 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,288,440.16. The trade was a 55.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 57,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,217,918.84. This represents a 12.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 31,098 shares of company stock valued at $2,776,150. Corporate insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson restated 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 cut their target price on Graco from $96.00 to $93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $89.25.

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.