Ninety One UK Ltd Buys 20,638 Shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its position in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 461,099 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 20,638 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $67,569,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of PG. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in 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 during the period. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 44,320,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,717,246,000 after purchasing an additional 4,959,527 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Procter & Gamble by 96,526.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,535,557 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,840,449,000 after purchasing an additional 38,495,676 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position 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 raised its stake in Procter & Gamble by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,313,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,275,616,000 after buying an additional 670,862 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PG has been the subject of several recent research reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $156.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Procter & Gamble from $155.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Procter & Gamble in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $168.00 target price on the stock. Seven research 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $168.53.

Procter & Gamble Stock Performance

PG traded up $0.43 on Thursday, hitting $156.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,271,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,802,070. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $159.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $152.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 12 month low of $141.45 and a 12 month high of $163.14. The firm has a market cap of $367.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.44.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.48 billion. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 34.04% and a net margin of 17.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.45 EPS for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 18th. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.57%. This is a boost from Procter & Gamble’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is currently 62.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Procter & Gamble news, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.11, for a total value of $122,693.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,859 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $768,256.49. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Marc S. Pritchard sold 101,704 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.57, for a total value of $15,618,683.28. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 163,428 shares in the company, valued at $25,097,637.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO R. Alexandra Keith sold 776 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $768,256.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 279,063 shares of company stock valued at $43,187,745. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

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.