Procter & Gamble Company (The) (PG) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Investment Research

Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) was downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday.

According to Zacks, “P&G reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2017 results, wherein earnings and revenues surpassed expectations. Adjusted earnings increased 8% year over year but net sales remained unchanged with the year-ago level. The earnings growth was encouraging in light of solid organic sales growth and operating margin expansion (up 210 basis points or bps) aided by productivity cost savings (up 350 bps). SG&A expenses, as a percentage of sales, were also down 220 bps aided by cost savings. Overall organic sales were up 2% comprising 2% volume growth. All five business segments achieved organic volume growth despite deceleration in market growth. P&G’s online organic sales also improved 30% and represent over 5% of total revenue. The company remains focused on balanced growth through improved product, packaging, and marketing initiatives and productivity cost saving plan ($10 billion over the next five years).”

A number of other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Vetr raised shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.67 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Jefferies Group LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $103.00 price target on shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) from $88.00 to $87.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) in a research note on Monday, April 24th. Finally, Capital One Financial Corporation lowered shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $5.00 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $88.21.

Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) traded down 0.21% on Thursday, reaching $90.67. 5,824,439 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Procter & Gamble Company has a 52-week low of $81.18 and a 52-week high of $92.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $88.56 and its 200 day moving average is $88.68. The firm has a market cap of $231.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.21 and a beta of 0.68.

Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.07. Procter & Gamble Company (The) had a net margin of 23.56% and a return on equity of 19.52%. The firm had revenue of $16.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.79 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Procter & Gamble Company will post $4.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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In other Procter & Gamble Company (The) news, insider Suranjan Magesvaran sold 10,512 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.00, for a total value of $956,592.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Patrice Louvet sold 29,621 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.01, for a total transaction of $2,547,702.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 76,651 shares in the company, valued at $6,592,752.51. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 203,898 shares of company stock worth $17,666,387. 0.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PG. Asset Planning Services Ltd. increased its position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 0.4% in the second quarter. Asset Planning Services Ltd. now owns 1,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 5 shares in the last quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. increased its position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 11.9% in the first quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 1,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 17.1% in the first quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,640 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Feltz Wealth PLAN Inc. bought a new position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) during the first quarter valued at approximately $184,000. Finally, Winfield Associates Inc. increased its position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 0.7% in the second quarter. Winfield Associates Inc. now owns 2,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $197,000 after buying an additional 15 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 59.78% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Company (The) Company Profile

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.