Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Shares Up 0.3%

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)’s stock price shot up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $156.94 and last traded at $155.95. 6,103,296 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 0% from the average session volume of 6,114,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $155.45.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PG has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $168.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $165.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Truist Financial upgraded Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Monday, March 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on Procter & Gamble from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $168.53.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The firm has a market cap of $366.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.44. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $159.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.77.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.14. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 34.04% and a net margin of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.48 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.59 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.45 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be issued a dividend of $1.0065 per share. This is an increase from Procter & Gamble’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is 62.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.11, for a total value of $122,693.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,859 shares in the company, valued at $768,256.49. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Gary A. Coombe sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.32, for a total transaction of $3,549,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 36,845 shares in the company, valued at $5,943,835.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.11, for a total value of $122,693.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $768,256.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 279,063 shares of company stock valued at $43,187,745 over the last quarter. 0.17% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Procter & Gamble

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 46,754,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,936,343,000 after purchasing an additional 510,559 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 44,320,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,717,246,000 after buying an additional 4,959,527 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 96,526.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,535,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,840,449,000 after buying an additional 38,495,676 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,608,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,193,916,000 after buying an additional 3,047,557 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,313,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,275,616,000 after buying an additional 670,862 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.