HighTower Advisors LLC Buys 19,077 Shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG)

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) by 73.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,149 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 19,077 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Dollar General were worth $3,423,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in Dollar General by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 11,767,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $892,199,000 after purchasing an additional 1,528,450 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Dollar General by 8.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,958,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $842,208,000 after purchasing an additional 759,869 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Dollar General by 3.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,243,012 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,899,000 after purchasing an additional 182,300 shares in the last quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC grew its position in Dollar General by 8,426.1% in the fourth quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 4,041,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,994,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baupost Group LLC MA bought a new position in Dollar General in the third quarter valued at $194,832,000. Institutional investors own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Gordon Haskett cut shares of Dollar General from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Dollar General from $102.00 to $100.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Dollar General from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased 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 note on Friday, December 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.26.

Dollar General Price Performance

Shares of Dollar General stock opened at $81.73 on Friday. Dollar General Co. has a twelve month low of $66.43 and a twelve month high of $164.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $74.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The firm had revenue of $10.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.83 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Dollar General Co. will post 5.75 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 8th. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Dollar General

In related news, Director Michael M. Calbert sold 6,000 shares of Dollar General stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.27, for a total transaction of $451,620.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 120,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,056,636.94. The trade was a 4.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

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.