Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Reduces Stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lowered its position in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG - Free Report) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,139,958 shares of the company's stock after selling 3,679 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 0.52% of Dollar General worth $86,432,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Dollar General by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,231,285 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,913,036,000 after purchasing an additional 160,853 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Dollar General by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company's stock valued at $892,199,000 after acquiring an additional 1,528,450 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew 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 acquiring an additional 759,869 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth about $399,433,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company's stock valued at $441,899,000 after purchasing an additional 182,300 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Remove Ads

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on DG. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Dollar General from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup cut their target price on Dollar General from $73.00 to $69.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Dollar General from $97.00 to $95.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $92.26.

Dollar General Trading Up 1.6 %

Dollar General stock traded up $1.35 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $87.45. 3,177,016 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,651,922. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.23 billion, a PE ratio of 14.40, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $76.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.83. Dollar General Co. has a twelve month low of $66.43 and a twelve month high of $164.12.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 18.85% and a net margin of 3.33%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 EPS. Research analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.70%. Dollar General's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.18%.

Insider Activity

In other Dollar General news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total value of $451,620.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 120,322 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,056,636.94. This trade represents a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.