Procter & Gamble Company (The) (PG) - Analysts’ Weekly Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently updated their ratings and price targets for Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE: PG):

• 7/22/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Deutsche Bank AG. They now have a $92.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $90.00.
• 7/17/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Jefferies Group LLC. They now have a $98.00 price target on the stock. They wrote, “Trian has filed a prelim proxy statement to nominate Nelson Peltz to P&G’s Board. While P&G has taken sensible steps to drive shareholder value, results/ TSR have lagged. Mr. Peltz is neither looking to split-up P&G nor replace its current CEO, and specifics behind his plan to improve profitability/ performance still ambiguous. However, we continue to believe his involvement raises the execution bar at P&G, which is supportive of a higher multiple. Trian has launched a campaign to elect Nelson Peltz to P&G’s Board at the company’s 2017 Annual Meeting: Press reports initially surfaced in February of Trian’s $3.3B stake in P&G and the activist is now going public after four months of discussion with the company failed to land Mr. Peltz a seat on the Board. Perhaps even more noteworthy than the areas where Mr. Peltz is looking to be an agent for change (i.e. excessive cost, bureaucracy, market share losses) are those areas where he is not (i.e. neither looking to break-up P&G nor replace CEO David Taylor). The investment community will surely hear more in the coming months as Mr. Peltz makes his case publicly (including public interviews this morning).””
• 7/12/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) was downgraded by analysts at BidaskClub from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating.
• 7/7/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Investment Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating. According to Zacks, “P&G is known for its strong brand recognition, diversified portfolio, impressive product development capabilities and marketing prowess as well as strong cash flow productivity. The company is investing in its brands and products as well as redesigning the supply chain to improve productivity and organic growth. However, P&G has been struggling for the last few quarters to boost sales. Major foreign exchange headwind, weak volumes, divestitures and slowing market growth have been hurting sales. Soft consumer-spending environment in developed markets also adds to the worries. That said, P&G is speeding up innovations and investments to counter the softening industry growth. Its productivity improvements and aggressive cost-saving efforts are also consistently helping to boost profit level.”
• 7/3/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) was downgraded by analysts at Vetr from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating. They now have a $83.75 price target on the stock.
• 6/30/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada. They now have a $80.00 price target on the stock.
• 6/22/2017 – Procter & Gamble Company (The) was downgraded by analysts at Capital One Financial Corporation from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating. They now have a $2.00 price target on the stock, down previously from $5.00.

Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE PG) traded down 0.65% on Friday, reaching $90.09. 3,808,009 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. The firm has a market cap of $230.42 billion, a PE ratio of 16.56 and a beta of 0.68. Procter & Gamble Company has a one year low of $81.18 and a one year high of $92.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $88.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.46.

Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.07. Procter & Gamble Company (The) had a return on equity of 19.30% and a net margin of 23.14%. The business had revenue of $16.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.01 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.79 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Procter & Gamble Company will post $4.13 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 21st will be paid a $0.6896 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 19th. Procter & Gamble Company (The)’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.55%.

In other Procter & Gamble Company (The) news, insider Steven D. Bishop sold 2,668 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.34, for a total value of $233,023.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 43,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,808,722.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Patrice Louvet sold 62,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.27, for a total value of $5,378,934.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 199,891 shares of company stock valued at $17,276,637 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

The Procter & Gamble Company is focused on providing branded consumer packaged goods to the consumers across the world. The Company operates through five segments: Beauty; Grooming; Health Care; Fabric & Home Care, and Baby, Feminine & Family Care. The Company sells its products in approximately 180 countries and territories primarily through mass merchandisers, grocery stores, membership club stores, drug stores, department stores, distributors, baby stores, specialty beauty stores, e-commerce, high-frequency stores and pharmacies.