Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday, August 3rd.
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).”
Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a buy rating and set a $98.00 price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) in a report on Monday, July 17th. Vetr upgraded Procter & Gamble Company (The) from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $94.67 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. UBS AG restated a buy rating and issued a $102.00 target price (down previously from $104.00) on shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Capital One Financial Corporation lowered Procter & Gamble Company (The) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $5.00 to $2.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Procter & Gamble Company (The) from $88.00 to $87.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $87.81.
Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) traded up 0.26% on Thursday, reaching $92.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,965,478 shares. Procter & Gamble Company has a 52-week low of $81.18 and a 52-week high of $92.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $89.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $89.05. The firm has a market cap of $235.72 billion, a PE ratio of 16.53 and a beta of 0.68.
Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.07. Procter & Gamble Company (The) had a return on equity of 19.97% and a net margin of 23.56%. The firm had revenue of $16.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $16.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Procter & Gamble Company will post $4.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
ILLEGAL ACTIVITY NOTICE: This piece was first posted by StockNewsTimes and is the property of of StockNewsTimes. If you are accessing this piece on another website, it was illegally stolen and republished in violation of international trademark & copyright laws. The legal version of this piece can be viewed at https://stocknewstimes.com/2017/08/16/procter-gamble-company-the-pg-stock-rating-lowered-by-zacks-investment-research-updated.html.
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 21st were given a dividend of $0.6896 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.98%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 19th. Procter & Gamble Company (The)’s payout ratio is presently 49.37%.
In other Procter & Gamble Company (The) news, insider Suranjan Magesvaran sold 10,512 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.00, for a total value of $956,592.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Ioannis Skoufalos sold 3,879 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.17, for a total transaction of $334,253.43. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 141,548 shares of company stock worth $12,287,453. 0.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PG. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management increased its position in Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management now owns 29,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,500,000 after buying an additional 781 shares during the period. Graham Capital Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) during the fourth quarter worth approximately $992,000. Parallel Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,289,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 98,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,246,000 after buying an additional 9,110 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Folger Hill Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) during the fourth quarter worth approximately $378,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 59.48% 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.
Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Procter & Gamble Company (The) (PG)
For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com
Receive News & Ratings for Procter & Gamble Company (The) Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Procter & Gamble Company (The) and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
