Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Has $64.99 Million Stock Holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 857,181 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,900 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $64,991,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,231,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,913,036,000 after purchasing an additional 160,853 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Dollar General by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $892,199,000 after buying an additional 1,528,450 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Dollar General by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,361,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $405,425,000 after acquiring an additional 118,204 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Dollar General in the fourth quarter valued at $399,433,000. Finally, ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,994,070 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Dollar General news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 809 shares of Dollar General stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.72, for a total transaction of $76,628.48. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 48,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,596,951.04. The trade was a 1.64 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Dollar General from $108.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective (down previously from $90.00) on shares of Dollar General in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Melius Research upgraded Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup upgraded Dollar General from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $69.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Dollar General has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $94.75.

Dollar General Stock Up 4.2 %

Shares of DG opened at $93.15 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.40. Dollar General Co. has a 52 week low of $66.43 and a 52 week high of $147.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.15. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $82.11 and a 200-day moving average of $78.47.

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

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be issued 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 2.53%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.