GGG vs ITT: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. GGG and ITT share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined GGG and ITT exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Graco Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets specialized equipment used to pump, meter, mix, dispense, and spray fluids and powders. The business runs across three segments: Contractor (paint sprayers, foam and roofing systems, sold heavily through home-center and paint-store channels), Industrial (liquid and powder finishing, lubrication, and process pumps for factories), and Expansion Markets (semiconductor pumps, high-pressure oil and gas valves, and environmental equipment). Its products are often low-cost but mission-critical parts of a customer's larger process, which gives Graco strong pricing power, high gross margins in the low-50s percent range, and a long record of returning cash through dividends and buybacks.

Full GGG guide

ITT Inc. makes precision components for machines that are not allowed to fail: brake pads, industrial pumps and valves, and electrical connectors for aircraft and defense platforms. It reports three segments. Flow Technologies, renamed from Industrial Process after the SPX FLOW acquisition closed, sells pumps, valves, mixers and food and beverage process equipment, and produced ~$792 million of revenue in the second quarter of 2026. Motion Technologies (~$386 million) supplies friction material, shock absorbers and rail damping under the ITT Friction, KONI and Axtone brands. Connect & Control Technologies (~$296 million) builds connectors and actuation components for aerospace, defense, industrial and medical customers. Roughly ~65% of revenue comes from outside the United States, and the company employed about ~11,600 people before the acquisition.

Full ITT guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• GGG drivers: Pricing power and niche moats; Acquisition-led growth.
• ITT drivers: SPX FLOW reshapes the flow business; Defense and aerospace demand at Connect & Control.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Organic sales have been declining, so reported growth leans heavily on acquisitions and currency, which can mask underlying softness. For ITT, the balance sheet changed character in a single quarter, from net cash at the end of 2025 to ~$3.1 billion of net debt, and goodwill of ~$3.87 billion now sits against ~$4.81 billion of equity, so a disappointing integration would surface as an impairment rather than a slow fade.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick GGG if you believe its drivers more; ITT if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the GGG and ITT guides.

GGG. Graco trades around $74 per share with a market cap near $12.3 billion, at roughly 24 times trailing earnings, a premium that reflects its quality and consistency. Q1 2026 revenue of about $540 million grew 2.3 percent, but that was entirely acquisitions and currency offsetting a roughly 6 percent organic decline, and it missed analyst estimates. Gross margin slipped about 60 basis points on higher product costs, lower factory volume, and tariffs.

ITT. At a share price near ~$219 and a market capitalization of ~$19.6 billion, ITT trades at roughly ~27 times the midpoint of its own 2026 adjusted EPS guidance and about ~44 times trailing GAAP earnings, a spread created almost entirely by SPX FLOW purchase accounting. Enterprise value of roughly ~$22.7 billion works out near ~4.1 times the revenue implied by full-year growth guidance of ~38% to ~41%. The dividend, ~$0.386 per quarter for a yield around ~0.7%, is a small component of the return case.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): GGG shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.2B, q1 2026 revenue ~$540M (+2.3% YoY), q1 2026 diluted eps ~$0.70, market cap ~$12.3B; ITT shows revenue (ttm) ~$4.74B, up from ~$3.94B in FY2025, q2 2026 revenue ~$1.47B, up ~51% total and ~13% organic, q2 2026 operating margin ~12.2% reported, ~20.0% adjusted, fy2026 guidance (adjusted eps) ~$8.12 to ~$8.32, with reported EPS of ~$4.47 to ~$4.67.

GGG and ITT are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined GGG and ITT exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.