Oppenheimer analyst Christopher Glynn maintained a Buy rating on WW Grainger (NYSE: GWW) yesterday and set a price target of $410. The company’s shares closed yesterday at $355.02, close to its 52-week high of $372.06.
Glynn observed:
“We continue to believe GWW’s strategic business model and asset base will continue to enable the pivot in fundamentals and enable ongoing share gain at favorable mix, and therefore, stock price appreciation. US margins declined 300 bps from 2014 levels to 15.3% in 2017, with 1H18 OM of 16.5% up 100 bps vs. 1H17. We believe as much as 2/3 of prior margin degradation reflected mix shifts as GWW’s list-price based business (~1/3 US volume) saw significant declines (US medium customer down dd annually for years) against growth in large customer contract business (negotiated price; ~2/3 US volume); and ~1/3 or more from the implementation of list price resets (net of active supply chain management that moderated the impacts in 2017).”
According to TipRanks.com, Glynn is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 12.0% and a 71.9% success rate. Glynn covers the Industrial Goods sector, focusing on stocks such as Emerson Electric Company, Honeywell International, and Roper Technologies.
The word on The Street in general, suggests a Hold analyst consensus rating for WW Grainger with a $346.29 average price target.
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WW Grainger’s market cap is currently $19.93B and has a P/E ratio of 26.01. The company has a Price to Book ratio of 10.52.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 23 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock.
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W.W. Grainger, Inc. operates as a distributor of maintenance, repair and operating products. The company offers maintenance, repair and operating supplies and other related products and services through local branches, catalogs and the Internet.
