Leibman Financial Services Inc. Acquires New Stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 26,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,018,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC raised its position in Dollar General by 30.6% in the second quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 376 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its position in shares of Dollar General by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 1,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP grew its stake in shares of Dollar General by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Lummis Asset Management LP now owns 9,419 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,245,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in Dollar General by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 7,042 shares of the company’s stock worth $596,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in Dollar General by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 7,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $657,000 after acquiring an additional 153 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on DG shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Bernstein Bank decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $98.00 to $94.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Dollar General from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 6th. Gordon Haskett upgraded Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Citigroup cut Dollar General from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $91.00 to $73.00 in a report on Friday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Dollar General currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.18.

Dollar General Price Performance

NYSE DG opened at $71.58 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $76.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $93.05. Dollar General Co. has a 1 year low of $70.15 and a 1 year high of $168.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15. The company has a market cap of $15.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.44.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The firm had revenue of $10.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.26 EPS. Dollar General’s quarterly revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 5.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 7th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 7th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Dollar General news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 4,740 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.44, for a total value of $367,065.60. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,575 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,206,128. This trade represents a 23.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.49% of the stock is owned by 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.