Morgan Stanley Lowers Dollar General (NYSE:DG) to Equal Weight

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) was downgraded by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $100.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $170.00. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.76% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Loop Capital decreased their price target on Dollar General from $140.00 to $130.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Dollar General from $145.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $147.00 to $141.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 31st. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Dollar General in a research note on Monday. Finally, Telsey Advisory Group cut Dollar General from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $168.00 to $103.00 in a research note on Friday. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $133.38.

Dollar General Trading Down 32.0 %

Shares of DG stock opened at $84.20 on Friday. Dollar General has a fifty-two week low of $84.00 and a fifty-two week high of $168.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $123.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $136.79. The stock has a market cap of $18.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a quick ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 29th. The company reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.79 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $10.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.37 billion. Dollar General had a return on equity of 22.80% and a net margin of 3.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 7.21 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dollar General

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Burkett Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Dollar General in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Fortis Group Advisors LLC lifted its position in Dollar General by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. Fortis Group Advisors LLC now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Bank & Trust Co acquired a new position in Dollar General during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. grew its position in Dollar General by 104.9% in the 1st quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 250 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Dollar General in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

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.