Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-four analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fifteen have issued a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $92.26.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. BMO Capital Markets boosted 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. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Telsey Advisory Group reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Dollar General in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on Dollar General from $102.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 9th.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $79.15 on Monday. Dollar General has a one year low of $66.43 and a one year high of $164.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.74. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. Dollar General had a return on equity of 18.85% and a net margin of 3.33%. The firm had revenue of $10.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Dollar General will post 5.75 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 8th. Dollar General’s payout ratio is currently 46.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total transaction of $451,620.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 120,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,056,636.94. This trade represents a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DG. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in Dollar General in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in Dollar General in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Providence First Trust Co acquired a new position in Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new position in Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.