Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys Shares of 13,300 Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,808,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 18.9% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,711,407 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,297,067,000 after purchasing an additional 3,457,393 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 11.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,765,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,055,202,000 after purchasing an additional 994,813 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 38.5% during the 4th 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. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,346,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,278,000 after purchasing an additional 62,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the 4th quarter valued at about $564,881,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Carman R. Wenkoff sold 5,909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.23, for a total value of $958,617.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,579 shares in the company, valued at $4,636,371.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Carman R. Wenkoff sold 5,909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.23, for a total value of $958,617.07. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 28,579 shares in the company, valued at $4,636,371.17. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Ralph Santana sold 3,009 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $155.72, for a total value of $468,561.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 3,248 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $505,778.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on DG. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Dollar General from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Argus upped their price target on shares of Dollar General from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Telsey Advisory Group reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Dollar General in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $147.00 target price (up from $127.00) on shares of Dollar General in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Dollar General from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $124.00 to $154.00 in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Dollar General has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.08.

Dollar General Stock Up 0.8 %

NYSE DG opened at $145.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a market capitalization of $32.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.42. Dollar General Co. has a one year low of $101.09 and a one year high of $222.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $149.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $133.86.

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

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 9th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.62%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.22%.

Dollar General 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.