Primecap Management Co. CA Sells 82,000 Shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Primecap Management Co. CA trimmed its position in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 71.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,350 shares of the company’s stock after selling 82,000 shares during the quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $2,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of DG. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Dollar General by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $892,199,000 after buying an additional 1,528,450 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Dollar General by 8.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $842,208,000 after acquiring an additional 759,869 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth approximately $399,433,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Dollar General by 3.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,899,000 after purchasing an additional 182,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC raised its position in Dollar General by 8,426.1% in the 4th quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 4,041,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $306,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,994,070 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

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

Dollar General Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $82.38 on Thursday. Dollar General Co. has a 12 month low of $66.43 and a 12 month high of $164.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $74.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.73. The firm has a market cap of $18.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 18.85% and a net margin of 3.33%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.86%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.18%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on DG shares. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Dollar General from $73.00 to $69.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Dollar General from $108.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Dollar General from $97.00 to $95.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Dollar General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Dollar General presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $92.26.

About Dollar General

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.