Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Raises Position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 821.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 696,946 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 621,299 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned 0.32% of Dollar General worth $52,842,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Dollar General by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,231,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,913,036,000 after purchasing an additional 160,853 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Dollar General by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $892,199,000 after purchasing an additional 1,528,450 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Dollar General by 8.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $842,208,000 after buying an additional 759,869 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter valued at about $399,433,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dollar General by 3.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company’s stock worth $441,899,000 after buying an additional 182,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:DG opened at $87.67 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $76.83 and its two-hundred day moving average is $77.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.15. Dollar General Co. has a 1 year low of $66.43 and a 1 year high of $164.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.28 billion, a PE ratio of 14.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.51 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 EPS. Analysts predict that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 46.18%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $73.00 to $69.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price target on Dollar General from $97.00 to $95.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Dollar General from $100.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. Bank of America cut their target price on Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Dollar General from $80.00 to $84.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.26.

About Dollar General

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.