Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Hits New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after DA Davidson upgraded the stock from a neutral rating to a buy rating. DA Davidson now has a $209.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $160.00. Procter & Gamble traded as high as $178.74 and last traded at $178.21, with a volume of 781518 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.28.

PG has been the topic of a number of other reports. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $180.00 to $183.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. DZ Bank raised shares of Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,800 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.99, for a total transaction of $2,163,072.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,566 shares in the company, valued at $1,954,538.34. The trade was a 52.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.89, for a total transaction of $6,289,463.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 263,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,508,763.93. This trade represents a 12.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 59,673 shares of company stock worth $10,102,753. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Procter & Gamble

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 7.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 55,204,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,538,327,000 after purchasing an additional 3,619,466 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 26,556,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,599,554,000 after acquiring an additional 689,282 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,632,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,567,556,000 after acquiring an additional 122,190 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 4.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,380,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,183,522,000 after acquiring an additional 830,476 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,422,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,844,442,000 after acquiring an additional 105,734 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Procter & Gamble Stock Up 1.1 %

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $170.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $168.66. The company has a market cap of $419.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.55.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $21.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.99 billion. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.07% and a return on equity of 33.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.83 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.48%.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care; and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Beauty segment offers conditioners, shampoos, styling aids, and treatments under the Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Pantene, and Rejoice brands; and antiperspirants and deodorants, personal cleansing, and skin care products under the Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Secret, SK-II, and Native brands.