Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) Stock Price Down 0.1% – Should You Sell?

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) shares fell 0.1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $168.83 and last traded at $169.35. 971,485 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 6,651,275 shares. The stock had previously closed at $169.54.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on PG. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $182.00 to $175.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. DZ Bank raised shares of Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of Procter & Gamble from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $163.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $177.00.

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market cap of $403.56 billion, a PE ratio of 29.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $170.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $168.40.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 33.25% and a net margin of 17.07%. The business had revenue of $21.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.83 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $1.0065 dividend. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.48%.

Insider Activity at Procter & Gamble

In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 12,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.99, for a total transaction of $2,163,072.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,566 shares in the company, valued at $1,954,538.34. This represents a 52.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 31,797 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total value of $5,380,688.34. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 300,777 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $50,897,483.94. This trade represents a 9.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 313,597 shares of company stock valued at $53,268,499 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Procter & Gamble

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 7.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 55,204,776 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,538,327,000 after acquiring an additional 3,619,466 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 2.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 26,556,319 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,599,554,000 after acquiring an additional 689,282 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,632,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,567,556,000 after acquiring an additional 122,190 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 4.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,380,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,183,522,000 after acquiring an additional 830,476 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Procter & Gamble by 0.6% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,422,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,844,442,000 after acquiring an additional 105,734 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company 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, SK-II, and Native brands.