Morgan Stanley Cuts Dollar General (NYSE:DG) Price Target to $80.00

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) had its price target lowered by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $100.00 to $80.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 13.03% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on DG. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $122.00 to $104.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup cut Dollar General from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $91.00 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Bank of America raised Dollar General from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $97.27.

Dollar General Stock Performance

NYSE:DG opened at $70.78 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $90.55. Dollar General has a 1-year low of $66.43 and a 1-year high of $168.07. The stock has a market cap of $15.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.66, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.44.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 18.85% and a net margin of 3.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Dollar General news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 4,740 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.44, for a total transaction of $367,065.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,575 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,206,128. This represents a 23.33 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of Dollar General stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total transaction of $451,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 120,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,056,636.94. This represents a 4.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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