Dollar General (NYSE:DG) Price Target Lowered to $80.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) had its price objective reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $90.00 to $80.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

DG has been the subject of a number of other reports. Loop Capital cut their target price on Dollar General from $130.00 to $90.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 30th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $155.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America raised shares of Dollar General from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Dollar General from $169.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $154.00 to $102.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.27.

Dollar General Stock Up 2.5 %

DG stock opened at $81.59 on Thursday. Dollar General has a fifty-two week low of $72.12 and a fifty-two week high of $168.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.44, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.44. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $79.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $103.60.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $10.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.14 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 20.62% and a net margin of 3.57%. Dollar General’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.26 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 5.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 7th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.88%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dollar General

In related news, Director Warren F. Bryant acquired 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $80.83 per share, with a total value of $80,830.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,030 shares in the company, valued at $3,397,284.90. The trade was a 2.44 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Roderick J. West sold 2,510 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.25, for a total transaction of $208,957.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $762,819.75. This represents a 21.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dollar General

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Dollar General by 453.4% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 10,238,886 shares of the company’s stock valued at $865,903,000 after buying an additional 8,388,735 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Dollar General by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $842,208,000 after acquiring an additional 759,869 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Dollar General by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,899,000 after acquiring an additional 182,300 shares during the period. Baupost Group LLC MA bought a new position in Dollar General during the third quarter worth $194,832,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Dollar General by 2.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,434,960 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,355,000 after purchasing an additional 31,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.