First Eagle Investment Management LLC Takes Position in Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,268,172 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,433,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DG. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 2.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 253,053 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,401,000 after purchasing an additional 6,372 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 72.8% in the third quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 4,299 shares of the company’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 1,811 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Dollar General in the third quarter worth approximately $212,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 1.8% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 480,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,663,000 after purchasing an additional 8,388 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 62.9% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 166,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,087,000 after purchasing an additional 64,336 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Dollar General news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of Dollar General stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total value of $451,620.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 120,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,056,636.94. This trade represents a 4.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Dollar General from $102.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 9th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $108.00 to $95.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $104.00 to $93.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Gordon Haskett downgraded shares of Dollar General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Dollar General from $94.00 to $83.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Dollar General presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.09.

Dollar General Stock Performance

DG opened at $80.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a fifty day moving average of $73.61 and a 200 day moving average of $78.70. Dollar General Co. has a fifty-two week low of $66.43 and a fifty-two week high of $168.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $10.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. Dollar General’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.95%. Dollar General’s payout ratio is currently 38.88%.

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.