Graco (NYSE:GGG) Price Target Raised to $97.00 at Royal Bank of Canada

Graco (NYSE:GGG) had its price objective raised by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $93.00 to $97.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 15.95% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on GGG. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 target price on shares of Graco in a research note on Friday, September 27th. BNP Paribas raised Graco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $105.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Graco from $88.00 to $85.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Graco has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $93.20.

Graco Stock Performance

GGG traded up $0.15 during trading on Friday, reaching $83.66. The company had a trading volume of 129,001 shares, compared to its average volume of 401,781. The company has a market cap of $14.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.83. Graco has a 12-month low of $77.49 and a 12-month high of $94.77. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $84.01.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Graco

In related news, EVP Kathryn L. Schoenrock sold 1,527 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.30, for a total transaction of $137,888.10. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 6,374 shares in the company, valued at $575,572.20. This represents a 19.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Caroline M. Chambers sold 8,280 shares of Graco stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,098 shares of company stock valued at $2,776,150 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.63% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Graco

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Graco by 244.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,990,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $174,210,000 after buying an additional 1,412,704 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Graco by 6.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,458,988 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $652,736,000 after acquiring an additional 443,141 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 142.9% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 652,048 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $57,061,000 after buying an additional 383,599 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Graco during the second quarter worth $27,502,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Graco by 54.2% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 814,321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $64,502,000 after buying an additional 286,212 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.88% of the company’s stock.

About Graco

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.