The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) Declares $1.01 Quarterly Dividend

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 14th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of 1.0065 per share on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%.

Procter & Gamble has raised its dividend payment by an average of 5.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 69 consecutive years. Procter & Gamble has a payout ratio of 54.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Procter & Gamble to earn $7.39 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.03 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.5%.

Procter & Gamble Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of PG stock opened at $159.82 on Wednesday. Procter & Gamble has a twelve month low of $146.28 and a twelve month high of $180.43. The stock has a market cap of $376.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $169.40 and a 200 day moving average of $169.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last posted its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.07% and a return on equity of 33.25%. The firm had revenue of $21.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Procter & Gamble will post 6.94 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Procter & Gamble news, CEO Gary A. Coombe sold 47,847 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $179.84, for a total value of $8,604,804.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,189,463.68. The trade was a 54.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.99, for a total transaction of $2,163,072.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,954,538.34. The trade was a 52.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 75,439 shares of company stock valued at $13,317,460 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on PG. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $180.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $209.00 price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble in a report on Friday, December 27th. Barclays cut Procter & Gamble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $163.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Procter & Gamble from $174.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $179.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Procter & Gamble presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.75.

About Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble Co engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods. It operates through the following segments: Beauty, Grooming, Health Care, Fabric and Home Care, and Baby, Feminine and Family Care. The Beauty segment offers hair, skin, and personal care. The Grooming segment consists of shave care like female and male blades and razors, pre and post shave products, and appliances.