Procter & Gamble Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:PG)

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 28,394 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 39% compared to the typical volume of 20,439 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total value of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at $1,902,451.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 3,373 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total value of $573,410.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 21,513 shares in the company, valued at $3,657,210. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total value of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 11,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,902,451.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 375,553 shares of company stock worth $63,829,141. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Procter & Gamble

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PG. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,956,117,000. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 16,292.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,675,902 shares of the company’s stock valued at $606,230,000 after buying an additional 3,653,477 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 114.9% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,568,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $579,017,000 after buying an additional 1,907,716 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble during the 1st quarter valued at about $233,788,000. Finally, Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Procter & Gamble during the 1st quarter valued at about $228,212,000. 65.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

NYSE PG opened at $176.07 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $415.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.41. Procter & Gamble has a 1-year low of $141.45 and a 1-year high of $177.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $168.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $164.83.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.69 billion. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.46% and a net margin of 17.71%. The company’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.37 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Procter & Gamble will post 6.97 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, July 19th were issued a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is currently 65.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $189.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Dbs Bank cut Procter & Gamble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Procter & Gamble presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.79.

About Procter & Gamble

The Procter & Gamble Company provides branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. It 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, and SK-II brands.