Dollar General (NYSE:DG) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $95.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America‘s price target points to a potential upside of 16.44% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on DG. Telsey Advisory Group cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $103.00 to $90.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Gordon Haskett raised shares of Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $100.00 to $88.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Daiwa America lowered shares of Dollar General from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $98.27.

Dollar General Price Performance

DG stock opened at $81.59 on Friday. Dollar General has a one year low of $72.12 and a one year high of $168.07. The stock has a market cap of $17.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.24.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.08). Dollar General had a net margin of 3.57% and a return on equity of 20.62%. The business had revenue of $10.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.26 EPS. Dollar General’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Dollar General will post 5.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Dollar General news, Director Warren F. Bryant purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $80.83 per share, for a total transaction of $80,830.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 42,030 shares in the company, valued at $3,397,284.90. The trade was a 2.44 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Roderick J. West sold 2,510 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.25, for a total transaction of $208,957.50. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,163 shares in the company, valued at $762,819.75. This trade represents a 21.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Dollar General

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of DG. Mather Group LLC. grew its position in Dollar General by 99.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 32.5% during the 2nd quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 3,956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $523,000 after acquiring an additional 970 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 41,860 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,535,000 after acquiring an additional 3,240 shares during the last quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the 2nd quarter valued at about $10,474,000. Finally, Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 4,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $574,000 after acquiring an additional 143 shares during the last quarter. 91.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.