Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Receives “Neutral” Rating from DA Davidson

DA Davidson reissued their neutral rating on shares of Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $160.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $174.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $179.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $177.00.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PG opened at $170.92 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $402.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.47, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.42. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $170.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $168.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.55. Procter & Gamble has a one year low of $142.50 and a one year high of $177.94.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $21.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.99 billion. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.07% and a return on equity of 33.25%. The firm’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.83 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Procter & Gamble will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $1.0065 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is currently 69.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Procter & Gamble

In other news, CFO Andre Schulten sold 13,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $2,216,970.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 37,208 shares in the company, valued at $6,325,360. The trade was a 25.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,800 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.99, for a total value of $2,163,072.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,954,538.34. The trade was a 52.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 174,727 shares of company stock valued at $29,694,037. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Procter & Gamble

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 5.7% in the third quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. now owns 4,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $695,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,632,000. Invst LLC increased its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.7% in the third quarter. Invst LLC now owns 15,889 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,752,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Unigestion Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 22.4% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 272,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,179,000 after acquiring an additional 49,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Second Line Capital LLC raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 3,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 506 shares during the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, SK-II, and Native brands.