Magnetar Financial LLC Buys Shares of 4,883 Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Magnetar Financial LLC bought a new stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $370,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kazazian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the 4th quarter worth about $1,024,000. Platinum Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the 4th quarter worth about $87,000. Xponance Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Dollar General by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 31,098 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,358,000 after acquiring an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Dollar General by 126.1% during the 4th quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 58,699 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,451,000 after acquiring an additional 32,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the 4th quarter worth about $315,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on DG. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Dollar General from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Citigroup decreased their target price on Dollar General from $73.00 to $69.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on 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. UBS Group decreased their target price on Dollar General from $108.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Dollar General from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total transaction of $451,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 120,322 shares in the company, valued at $9,056,636.94. This represents a 4.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Dollar General Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of DG opened at $83.84 on Friday. Dollar General Co. has a 1 year low of $66.43 and a 1 year high of $164.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $77.72. The stock has a market cap of $18.44 billion, a PE ratio of 13.81, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last issued its 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.83 EPS. Dollar General’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Investors 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 yield of 2.82%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 46.18%.

Dollar General 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.