Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Stock Price Up 0.8% After Analyst Upgrade

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) rose 0.8% on Monday after DA Davidson upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. DA Davidson now has a $209.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $160.00. Procter & Gamble traded as high as $178.82 and last traded at $177.76. Approximately 1,954,169 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 6,668,916 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.28.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $174.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays cut shares of Procter & Gamble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $163.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $164.00 price target on shares of Procter & Gamble in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at Procter & Gamble

In related news, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.89, for a total value of $6,289,463.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 263,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,508,763.93. This trade represents a 12.38 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 634 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.65, for a total transaction of $108,826.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,341 shares in the company, valued at $3,319,882.65. This represents a 3.17 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 72,473 shares of company stock worth $12,313,697 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 19,030.8% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 3,693,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $639,730,000 after purchasing an additional 3,674,286 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 16,292.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,675,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $606,230,000 after purchasing an additional 3,653,477 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 7.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 55,204,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,538,327,000 after purchasing an additional 3,619,466 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Procter & Gamble in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $301,950,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 416.1% in the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,818,490 shares of the company’s stock worth $315,016,000 after purchasing an additional 1,466,115 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Stock Up 0.6 %

The business’s 50 day moving average is $170.04 and its 200 day moving average is $168.74. The company has a market capitalization of $417.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.59, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 EPS 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 business had revenue of $21.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $1.0065 per share. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 69.31%.

About Procter & Gamble

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company 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, SK-II, and Native brands.