Appleton Partners Inc. MA Reduces Stock Holdings in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA reduced its stake in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 68,863 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,476 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $11,927,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 16,292.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,675,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $606,230,000 after acquiring an additional 3,653,477 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 114.9% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,568,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $579,017,000 after acquiring an additional 1,907,716 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Procter & Gamble in the 1st quarter valued at about $233,788,000. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP acquired a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the first quarter worth $228,212,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Procter & Gamble by 24.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,560,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $902,254,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,102 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PG has been the topic of a number of research reports. DZ Bank raised shares of Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. BNP Paribas assumed coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research note on Monday, June 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $187.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Procter & Gamble from $177.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $175.89.

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

Procter & Gamble stock opened at $171.92 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $171.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.40. The stock has a market cap of $405.76 billion, a PE ratio of 28.09, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.41. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 12-month low of $141.45 and a 12-month high of $177.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

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

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th were paid a dividend of $1.0065 per share. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 19th. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.85%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,902,451.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.89, for a total transaction of $6,289,463.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 263,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,508,763.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 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 transaction of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Insiders have sold 375,553 shares of company stock valued at $63,829,141 in the last three months. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Procter & Gamble Profile

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.