Dollar General Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:DG)

Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 31,685 call options on the company. This is an increase of 67% compared to the typical daily volume of 18,924 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Melius upgraded shares of Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Dollar General from $85.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Citigroup upgraded Dollar General from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $101.00 in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $80.00 target price (down previously from $90.00) on shares of Dollar General in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $95.48.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Dollar General news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 809 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.72, for a total value of $76,628.48. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 48,532 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,596,951.04. This trade represents a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Dollar General

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Dollar General by 4.8% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,433,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,324,271,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,917 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Dollar General by 8.5% in the first quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 12,770,542 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,122,914,000 after buying an additional 1,003,206 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Dollar General by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,361,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $405,425,000 after buying an additional 118,204 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $399,433,000. Finally, ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC grew its position in Dollar General by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 4,197,437 shares of the company’s stock worth $369,081,000 after acquiring an additional 155,966 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Stock Performance

Shares of Dollar General stock traded up $4.01 on Tuesday, reaching $102.19. The stock had a trading volume of 2,198,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,998,192. Dollar General has a fifty-two week low of $66.43 and a fifty-two week high of $147.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $89.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a current ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market cap of $22.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.27.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Dollar General will post 5.75 EPS for the current year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. Dollar General’s dividend payout ratio is currently 46.18%.

About Dollar General

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.