Curbstone Financial Management Corp Invests $404,000 in Graco Inc. $GGG

Curbstone Financial Management Corp bought a new position in Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,700 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $404,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 51,812 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,454,000 after buying an additional 744 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 25.4% in the 2nd quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 7,518 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $646,000 after buying an additional 1,521 shares in the last quarter. Praxis Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 48.2% in the 2nd quarter. Praxis Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,320 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 1,730 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 36,629 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,156,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WealthPlan Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Graco by 10.6% in the 2nd quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 129,189 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,106,000 after buying an additional 12,352 shares in the last quarter. 93.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Graco in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Graco from $88.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Graco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $94.50.

Graco Stock Performance

Shares of GGG opened at $82.36 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.21, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $84.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $83.99. Graco Inc. has a 52 week low of $72.06 and a 52 week high of $92.86.

Graco (NYSE:GGG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The industrial products company reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $571.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $590.57 million. Graco had a net margin of 22.26% and a return on equity of 19.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Graco Inc. will post 3.06 EPS for the current year.

Graco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, October 20th will be given a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, October 20th. Graco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.01%.

Graco 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.