The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases 72,970 Shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,041,770 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 72,970 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $336,729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 64.7% during the 1st quarter. Ruedi Wealth Management Inc. now owns 196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the second quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Transcendent Capital Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on PG. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $174.00 to $163.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $189.00 price target for the company. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $175.89.

Procter & Gamble Trading Up 0.6 %

PG opened at $173.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.73. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $170.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $166.06. The Procter & Gamble Company has a one year low of $141.45 and a one year high of $177.94. The stock has a market cap of $408.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.41.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.69 billion. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.46% and a net margin of 17.71%. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.97 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th were given a dividend of $1.0065 per share. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 19th. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total transaction of $1,458,045.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at $1,902,451.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 450 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total transaction of $76,149.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,212,043.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total value of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,902,451.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 375,553 shares of company stock worth $63,829,141. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Procter & Gamble

The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, and SK-II brands.