Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) Shares Purchased by HBW Advisory Services LLC

HBW Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 113.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,336 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,267 shares during the quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $3,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DG. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Dollar General during the 4th quarter worth about $564,881,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Dollar General by 124.5% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,193,127 shares of the company’s stock valued at $786,308,000 after buying an additional 1,770,718 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Dollar General by 38.5% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,744,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,168,329,000 after buying an additional 1,318,412 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Dollar General by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 19,570,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,118,721,000 after buying an additional 1,204,969 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Dollar General by 106.8% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,201,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $542,242,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,029 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.37% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DG. Atlantic Securities lowered Dollar General from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Loop Capital lowered Dollar General from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $200.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday, September 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Dollar General from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $210.00 to $132.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 31st. Bank of America cut their price target on Dollar General from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on Dollar General from $185.00 to $146.00 in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $159.41.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of Dollar General stock traded down $1.54 on Thursday, hitting $118.46. 1,772,576 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,642,750. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $157.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $185.50. Dollar General Co. has a 1-year low of $118.43 and a 1-year high of $261.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The company reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($0.34). Dollar General had a return on equity of 36.34% and a net margin of 5.59%. The company had revenue of $9.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.93 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.98 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 10th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 6th. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.18%.

Dollar General 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.