Man Group plc Has $106.73 Million Position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Man Group plc boosted its holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 63.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,407,706 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 546,193 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $106,732,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Dollar General during the 4th quarter valued at $399,433,000. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC lifted its stake in Dollar General by 8,426.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Dollar General during the 4th quarter valued at $140,421,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Dollar General by 14.9% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Dollar General by 32.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,380,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $256,310,000 after acquiring an additional 821,608 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 809 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 48,532 shares in the company, valued at $4,596,951.04. This represents a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a research note on Monday, May 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Dollar General from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Melius Research upgraded Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Gordon Haskett cut Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Dollar General from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $95.16.

Dollar General Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of Dollar General stock opened at $86.86 on Wednesday. Dollar General Co. has a 52-week low of $66.43 and a 52-week high of $147.87. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 8th. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.18%.

Dollar General Company Profile

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.