Mizuho Securities USA LLC Grows Stock Position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 46.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 20,843 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,584 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $1,580,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter worth about $399,433,000. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC raised its holdings in 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 worth $306,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,994,070 shares during the period. Baupost Group LLC MA purchased a new position in Dollar General during the third quarter worth approximately $194,832,000. Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $892,199,000 after buying an additional 1,528,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Dollar General by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $842,208,000 after buying an additional 759,869 shares during the period. 91.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on DG shares. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Dollar General from $94.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Dollar General from $73.00 to $69.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.26.

Dollar General Stock Performance

NYSE DG opened at $82.62 on Wednesday. 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 $18.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $75.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $77.72. Dollar General Co. has a 1-year low of $66.43 and a 1-year high of $164.12.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released 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. The company had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 EPS. As a group, 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 will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.86%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dollar General

In other Dollar General news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total value of $451,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 120,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,056,636.94. This represents a 4.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.