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

Shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-four brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $153.08.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on DG shares. StockNews.com raised Dollar General from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Oppenheimer reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Dollar General from $130.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, March 15th. Argus boosted their target price on Dollar General from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays raised Dollar General from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $124.00 to $154.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carman R. Wenkoff sold 5,909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.23, for a total value of $958,617.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 28,579 shares in the company, valued at $4,636,371.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, EVP Carman R. Wenkoff sold 5,909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.23, for a total value of $958,617.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 28,579 shares in the company, valued at $4,636,371.17. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Ralph Santana sold 3,009 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.72, for a total value of $468,561.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $505,778.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DG. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its holdings in Dollar General by 12.4% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 689 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Dollar General by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 785 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Dollar General by 13.2% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 754 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Dollar General by 14.8% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 700 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Dollar General by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 29,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,973,000 after buying an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Price Performance

DG stock opened at $142.59 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $150.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $135.18. The stock has a market cap of $31.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.86, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.42. Dollar General has a fifty-two week low of $101.09 and a fifty-two week high of $222.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $9.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.77 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 26.13% and a net margin of 4.29%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 7.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

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.