Graco -- A Little Known Superstar (GGG)

Eddy Elfenbein submits: I noticed that shares of Graco (GGG) hit a new all-time high yesterday.

Graco is one of those stocks that's not well-known, but it's been a remarkable stock for many years.

Since 1976, the stock is up about 20,000%. Not bad for a company that's nearly invisible to Wall Street. Only seven analysts follow the stock.

The 80-year-old company makes equipment that measures and dispenses fluid materials. Graco's products are used everywhere. They even make the pump that puts caramel into Hershey’s Kisses. I'm a fan already.

You can read more about Graco here and here.

Here are the financial results for the past 10 years:

Year........Sales..........EPS
1996.......$391.8.......$0.41
1997.......$413.9.......$0.51
1998.......$432.2.......$0.60
1999.......$442.5.......$0.84
2000.......$494.4.......$1.01
2001.......$472.8.......$0.92
2002.......$487.0.......$1.05
2003.......$535.1.......$1.23
2004.......$605.0.......$1.55
2005.......$731.7.......$1.80

Notice the smooth uptrend. Wall Street expects the company to make $2.08 a share this year on sales of $790 million.

GGG 30-yr Chart

Comments

[Steve Alexa...:]

Graco is a good company - dominates it's market niche, well run, financially healthy, sells replacement products (a repeat business). They also have a good international exposure for growth. Ranked highly on the Magic Formula screen. More analysis:

www.magicdiligence.com

2008 Feb 10 11:44 PM