Securian Asset Management Inc. Sells 338 Shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Securian Asset Management Inc. decreased its stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,729 shares of the company’s stock after selling 338 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of DG. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew 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 valued at $865,903,000 after acquiring an additional 8,388,735 shares in the last quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC lifted its stake in Dollar General by 8,426.1% in the 4th quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 4,041,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,994,070 shares during the last quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA acquired a new stake in Dollar General in the 3rd quarter valued at about $194,832,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 759,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Dollar General in the 4th quarter valued at about $45,899,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on DG shares. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $80.00 price objective (down from $90.00) on shares of Dollar General in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $97.00 to $95.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Dollar General news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the director now owns 120,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,056,636.94. The trade was a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $79.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $78.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15. Dollar General Co. has a 1 year low of $66.43 and a 1 year high of $164.12.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.98%. Dollar General’s payout ratio is presently 46.18%.

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.