The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) Position Lifted by New Century Financial Group LLC

New Century Financial Group LLC raised its stake in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 286.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,898 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,372 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $973,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,632,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,567,556,000 after buying an additional 122,190 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 10,552,081 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,546,302,000 after purchasing an additional 554,451 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 8.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,691,925 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,598,510,000 after purchasing an additional 733,440 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Procter & Gamble by 9.7% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 6,161,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $999,705,000 after purchasing an additional 545,601 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.3% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,008,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $974,914,000 after purchasing an additional 79,665 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total value of $1,458,045.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,902,451.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total value of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,902,451.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total value of $76,149.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 13,072 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,212,043.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 375,553 shares of company stock worth $63,829,141. Corporate insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PG opened at $173.14 on Tuesday. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 1 year low of $141.45 and a 1 year high of $177.94. The firm has a market cap of $408.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.29, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $170.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $166.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.73.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.46% and a net margin of 17.71%. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $20.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th were issued a $1.0065 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is currently 65.69%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PG. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Procter & Gamble in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $189.00 price objective for the company. Jefferies Financial Group cut Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Dbs Bank lowered Procter & Gamble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, BNP Paribas assumed coverage on shares of Procter & Gamble in a report on Monday, June 24th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $187.00 price target for the company. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Procter & Gamble has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $175.89.

Procter & Gamble Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, and SK-II brands.