Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Purchases New Stake in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $877,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of PG. Wulff Hansen & CO. boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 16,292.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,675,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $606,230,000 after acquiring an additional 3,653,477 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 114.9% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,568,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $579,017,000 after purchasing an additional 1,907,716 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Procter & Gamble during the first quarter worth about $233,788,000. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new stake in Procter & Gamble in the 1st quarter worth about $228,212,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Procter & Gamble by 24.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,560,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $902,254,000 after buying an additional 1,089,102 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PG opened at $173.23 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $170.68 and a 200-day moving average of $166.06. The stock has a market cap of $408.85 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.73. The Procter & Gamble Company has a fifty-two week low of $141.45 and a fifty-two week high of $177.94.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.69 billion. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.71% and a return on equity of 33.46%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 19th were given a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.69%.

Insider Transactions at Procter & Gamble

In related news, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 263,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,508,763.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 450 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total value of $76,149.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 13,072 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,212,043.84. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 263,537 shares in the company, valued at $44,508,763.93. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 375,553 shares of company stock valued at $63,829,141. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $182.00 to $175.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $174.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble from $177.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Procter & Gamble presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $175.89.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

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.