W.W. Grainger, Inc. $GWW Shares Sold by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund cut its holdings in W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE:GWW) by 2.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,094 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 406 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in W.W. Grainger were worth $17,558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in W.W. Grainger during the second quarter worth $6,303,024,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of W.W. Grainger by 4.5% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 527,969 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $575,914,000 after buying an additional 22,731 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of W.W. Grainger by 2.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 409,142 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $446,210,000 after buying an additional 9,743 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 24.1% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 363,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $494,244,000 after acquiring an additional 70,451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of W.W. Grainger by 147,683.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 300,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $373,728,000 after acquiring an additional 299,797 shares in the last quarter. 80.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GWW. Wall Street Zen raised W.W. Grainger from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, October 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on W.W. Grainger from $1,375.00 to $1,645.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Barclays decreased their target price on W.W. Grainger from $1,185.00 to $1,172.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $1,400.00 price target on shares of W.W. Grainger in a report on Thursday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of W.W. Grainger from $1,300.00 to $1,400.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, W.W. Grainger presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $1,331.08.

W.W. Grainger Stock Up 0.9%

W.W. Grainger stock opened at $1,486.16 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 1.64. W.W. Grainger, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $906.52 and a fifty-two week high of $1,521.41. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $1,321.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $1,251.22. The firm has a market cap of $69.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.95.

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The industrial products company reported $12.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $11.68 by $0.86. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.08 billion. W.W. Grainger had a return on equity of 48.92% and a net margin of 11.17%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $10.21 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that W.W. Grainger, Inc. will post 47.63 earnings per share for the current year.

W.W. Grainger Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 9th will be issued a $2.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 9th. This represents a $9.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. W.W. Grainger’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.88%.

W.W. Grainger Profile

W.W. Grainger, founded in Chicago in 1927, is a distributor of maintenance, repair and operating supplies. The company provides products such as safety equipment, tools, fasteners, electrical and plumbing supplies, material-handling equipment, and cleaning products. Grainger serves businesses, government agencies and other organizations through sales representatives, distribution centers, catalogs and digital platforms. Its operations include a high-touch distribution business in North America and online businesses serving customers in markets including the United States and Japan.