Insider Selling: Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) EVP Sells 4,740 Shares of Stock

Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 4,740 shares of Dollar General stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.44, for a total value of $367,065.60. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,206,128. The trade was a 23.33 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $76.03 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $78.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $100.33. Dollar General Co. has a fifty-two week low of $72.12 and a fifty-two week high of $168.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.08). Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The company had revenue of $10.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Dollar General Co. will post 5.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 7th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.10%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Dollar General by 453.4% during the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,238,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $865,903,000 after purchasing an additional 8,388,735 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $842,208,000 after buying an additional 759,869 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Dollar General by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,899,000 after buying an additional 182,300 shares in the last quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA bought a new position in shares of Dollar General in the 3rd quarter valued at about $194,832,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Dollar General by 2.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,434,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,355,000 after acquiring an additional 31,200 shares in the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on DG. Barclays cut their price target on Dollar General from $154.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Daiwa America cut shares of Dollar General from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Dollar General from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup lowered Dollar General from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $91.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.27.

Dollar General Company Profile

Dollar General Corporation, a discount retailer, provides various merchandise products in the southern, southwestern, midwestern, and eastern United States. It offers consumable products, including paper and cleaning products, such as paper towels, bath tissues, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry products; packaged food comprising cereals, pasta, canned soups, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar, and flour; and perishables that include milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, and wine.