Great West Life Assurance Co. Can Boosts Holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 23.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 228,335 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 42,769 shares during the period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can owned 0.10% of Dollar General worth $38,977,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. First Manhattan Co. increased its holdings in Dollar General by 447.4% in the 4th quarter. First Manhattan Co. now owns 104 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Financial Freedom LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the first quarter worth $28,000. Atlas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Dollar General during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Goldstream Capital Management Ltd bought a new position in Dollar General in the 1st quarter worth $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.37% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dollar General

In other news, EVP Carman R. Wenkoff acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 29th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $106.25 per share, with a total value of $212,500.00. Following the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,290,137.50. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $140.00 to $120.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 16th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $200.00 to $181.00 in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Bank of America cut their price objective on Dollar General from $130.00 to $105.00 in a research report on Monday, October 2nd. Edward Jones upgraded Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Dollar General from $165.00 to $128.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eighteen have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $144.04.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of DG stock opened at $121.78 on Tuesday. Dollar General Co. has a fifty-two week low of $101.09 and a fifty-two week high of $260.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.48, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $151.13.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 31st. The company reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.47 by ($0.34). The company had revenue of $9.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.93 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 36.34% and a net margin of 5.59%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 7.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 6th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.18%.

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.