First National Trust Co Reduces Stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

First National Trust Co reduced its position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 38.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,508 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,537 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $332,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Dollar General by 162.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,185,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,472,372,000 after buying an additional 11,257,537 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Dollar General by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,071,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,408,514,000 after buying an additional 3,360,413 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Dollar General during the 4th quarter valued at $337,150,000. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Dollar General by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 18,676,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,539,026,000 after buying an additional 2,273,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Dollar General during the 1st quarter valued at $301,738,000. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on DG shares. Argus lowered their target price on Dollar General from $175.00 to $170.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on Dollar General from $139.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Dollar General from $118.00 to $95.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Raymond James decreased their price objective on Dollar General from $150.00 to $120.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Dollar General from $130.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $113.95.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of Dollar General stock opened at $80.34 on Friday. Dollar General Co. has a twelve month low of $77.96 and a twelve month high of $168.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.69, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $118.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $134.58.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.09). Dollar General had a net margin of 3.57% and a return on equity of 20.62%. The company had revenue of $10.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.37 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.13 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Dollar General Co. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 8th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 8th. Dollar General’s payout ratio is 34.35%.

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.