Boston, MA 09/22/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Manufacturer of pumps and meters, Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) announced a quarterly dividend of 27.5 cents a share for the fourth straight quarter. The company has been increasing the dividend consecutively for eight years. Therefore, there is a likelihood of the company lifting its dividend rate in the next quarter.
Dividend Payment
According to the company’s statement, the record date of October 20 has been fixed for determining the names of shareholders, who would be eligible to receive the quarterly cash dividend. The company has set November 5 for paying a dividend. It has about 60 million shares of outstanding. The stock would become ex-dividend from October 16. The dividend represented $1.10 a share on an annualized basis.
Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG)’s latest quarterly dividend provides yield of 1.50%. However, the ten-year projected dividend yield works out to 4.08%, which is more than double that of the average five-year dividend yield of 1.90%.
The latest dividend payout ratio was 31.00% while the five-year average dividend payout ratio was 40.00%.
Growth Rate And History
The continuous increase in dividend over the last eight years has enabled the company to record significant growth pace for both the three-year, as well as, five-year period. While the three-year average dividend growth rate represented 9.02%, the average dividend growth rate for a five-year period worked out to 7.35%.
Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) has been paying dividend since 1990. The company has paid 13 cents a share for a quarter in January 2005, according to Nasdaq data. It increased to 14.5 cents a share the next year and to 16.5 cents a share the following year. After lifting the dividend rate by two cents for one more year, it has increased dividend by 0.5 cents in 2009 and by one cent a share in 2010.
The company has increased 2.5 cents a share in the dividend rate in 2012, 2013 and 2014. As a result, it reached 27.5 cents a share for a quarter. The company’s dividend payout ratio suggests that there could be still opportunity to extend it.
