Axa S.A. Increases Position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

AXA S.A. boosted its holdings in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG - Free Report) by 92.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,422 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 22,327 shares during the quarter. AXA S.A.'s holdings in Dollar General were worth $3,520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of DG. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Dollar General during the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 279.8% during the fourth quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 490 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 809 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.72, for a total value of $76,628.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 48,532 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,596,951.04. This represents a 1.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Melius raised Dollar General from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $110.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Dollar General in a research report on Monday, May 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target 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. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Dollar General from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Dollar General presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $95.16.

Dollar General Price Performance

NYSE DG traded down $0.27 on Friday, reaching $91.70. 2,185,058 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,957,096. The stock has a market cap of $20.17 billion, a PE ratio of 15.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.27. Dollar General Co. has a 12 month low of $66.43 and a 12 month high of $147.87. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $10.30 billion during 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 company's revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. Dollar General's payout ratio is currently 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.