Barclays Increases Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Price Target to $170.00

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) had its price objective lifted by Barclays from $168.00 to $170.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Procter & Gamble from $156.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a sector perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Procter & Gamble from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on Procter & Gamble from $172.00 to $171.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com downgraded Procter & Gamble from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Procter & Gamble from $175.00 to $182.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Procter & Gamble has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $168.88.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:PG opened at $161.50 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $380.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Procter & Gamble has a 52 week low of $141.45 and a 52 week high of $163.14. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $159.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $153.26.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 19th. The company reported $1.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.10. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.77% and a net margin of 18.00%. The firm had revenue of $20.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $20.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Procter & Gamble will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a $1.0065 dividend. This is a boost from Procter & Gamble’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is 65.69%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Procter & Gamble

In other Procter & Gamble news, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of the company’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 transaction of $122,693.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,859 shares in the company, valued at $768,256.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Procter & Gamble news, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of the company’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 transaction of $122,693.36. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,859 shares in the company, valued at $768,256.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Shailesh Jejurikar sold 31,275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.90, for a total value of $4,844,497.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 9,623 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,490,602.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 103,771 shares of company stock worth $16,292,467 over the last quarter. 0.17% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Procter & Gamble

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dfpg Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Dfpg Investments LLC now owns 24,892 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,680,000 after purchasing an additional 424 shares during the period. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Garrett Wealth Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,419 shares of the company’s stock worth $645,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. N.E.W. Advisory Services LLC now owns 94,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,772,000 after purchasing an additional 12,016 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,003,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,298,184,000 after buying an additional 131,339 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 105.5% in the 4th quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 59,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,699,000 after buying an additional 30,473 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.