Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Acquires 14,141 Shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its position in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG – Free Report) by 492.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,012 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 14,141 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $2,313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Dollar General by 18.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,711,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,297,067,000 after buying an additional 3,457,393 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Dollar General in the fourth quarter valued at about $564,881,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Dollar General by 38.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,744,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,168,329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,318,412 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in Dollar General in the second quarter valued at about $202,541,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in Dollar General in the second quarter valued at about $199,076,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $157.37 on Tuesday. Dollar General Co. has a 12-month low of $101.09 and a 12-month high of $222.99. The company has a market capitalization of $34.57 billion, a PE ratio of 20.82, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a 50 day moving average of $144.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $130.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by $0.09. Dollar General had a return on equity of 26.13% and a net margin of 4.29%. The company had revenue of $9.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.96 earnings per share. Dollar General’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 7.28 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 8th. Dollar General’s payout ratio is 31.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on DG. Citigroup lifted their target price on Dollar General from $115.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 8th. Telsey Advisory Group upgraded Dollar General from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $155.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on Dollar General from $158.00 to $162.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Dollar General from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.04.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Dollar General

About Dollar General

(Free Report)

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.