Dollar General (NYSE:DG) Price Target Raised to $115.00

Dollar General (NYSE:DG - Free Report) had its price objective hoisted by Piper Sandler from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on DG. Raymond James Financial lifted their target price on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Dollar General from $88.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Melius Research raised shares of Dollar General from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Guggenheim upped their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein set a $120.00 target price on Dollar General in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $108.40.

Dollar General Price Performance

NYSE:DG traded down $1.44 on Tuesday, hitting $107.81. The company had a trading volume of 1,666,622 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,570,630. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $109.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $90.72. Dollar General has a 52 week low of $66.43 and a 52 week high of $126.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.57, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, June 3rd. The company reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.32. Dollar General had a net margin of 2.81% and a return on equity of 17.93%. The business had revenue of $10.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.65 earnings per share. Dollar General's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 8th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 8th. Dollar General's dividend payout ratio is 45.04%.

Insider Activity at Dollar General

In other news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 1,969 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $222,497.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 46,563 shares in the company, valued at $5,261,619. This trade represents a 4.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Kathleen A. Reardon sold 6,438 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $111.56, for a total value of $718,223.28. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 41,646 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,646,027.76. The trade was a 13.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.56% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dollar General

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 4.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,433,202 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,324,271,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,917 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Dollar General by 8.5% during the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 12,770,542 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,122,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003,206 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Dollar General by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,361,216 shares of the company's stock worth $405,425,000 after buying an additional 118,204 shares in the last quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC increased its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 4,197,437 shares of the company's stock worth $369,081,000 after buying an additional 155,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Dollar General by 2.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,469,568 shares of the company's stock worth $305,079,000 after acquiring an additional 89,067 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company's stock.

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.