DA Davidson Reiterates "Neutral" Rating for Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG)

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reiterated by equities researchers at DA Davidson in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $160.00 price target on the stock. DA Davidson's price target points to a potential downside of 6.08% from the company's previous close.

PG has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $174.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com lowered Procter & Gamble from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. DZ Bank raised Procter & Gamble from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $190.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wolfe Research raised Procter & Gamble to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Procter & Gamble from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $177.00.

Procter & Gamble Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE PG traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $170.35. The stock had a trading volume of 2,311,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,653,063. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.75. Procter & Gamble has a 1 year low of $142.50 and a 1 year high of $177.94. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $170.07 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $168.49. The firm has a market cap of $401.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.42.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.07% and a return on equity of 33.25%. The business had revenue of $21.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.83 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Procter & Gamble will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.99, for a total transaction of $2,163,072.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,954,538.34. This represents a 52.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 634 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.65, for a total value of $108,826.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 19,341 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,319,882.65. This represents a 3.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 270,727 shares of company stock valued at $46,014,037. Insiders own 0.18% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Procter & Gamble

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 32,001 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,192,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares in the last quarter. Quent Capital LLC raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 10,684 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,733,000 after purchasing an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Inc. CA raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 19.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Inc. CA now owns 41,679 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,762,000 after purchasing an additional 6,908 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 7,158 shares of the company's stock worth $1,161,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 15.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 5,489,899 shares of the company's stock worth $890,736,000 after acquiring an additional 742,460 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company 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, SK-II, and Native brands.

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