Investors Buy High Volume of Dollar General Call Options (NYSE:DG)

Dollar General Co. (NYSE:DG) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 26,764 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 31% compared to the average volume of 20,488 call options.

Dollar General Trading Up 4.2 %

DG opened at $93.15 on Friday. Dollar General has a 12 month low of $66.43 and a 12 month high of $147.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $81.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.41. The firm has a market cap of $20.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.35, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78.

Dollar General (NYSE:DG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.51 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $10.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.26 billion. Dollar General had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 18.85%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.83 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Dollar General will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Dollar General Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 8th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 8th. Dollar General’s payout ratio is presently 46.18%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DG has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Dollar General from $95.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Melius upgraded shares of Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised shares of Dollar General from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $101.00 in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Dollar General from $79.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Melius Research upgraded Dollar General from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $94.75.

Insider Activity at Dollar General

In other Dollar General news, EVP Emily C. Taylor sold 809 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.72, for a total transaction of $76,628.48. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 48,532 shares in the company, valued at $4,596,951.04. This represents a 1.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Dollar General

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DG. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in Dollar General in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Dollar General during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Dollar General during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Providence First Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Dollar General in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Dollar General during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.77% of the company’s stock.

Dollar General Company Profile

Dollar General Corporation, a discount retailer, provides various merchandise products in the southern, southwestern, midwestern, and eastern United States. It offers consumable products, including paper and cleaning products, such as paper towels, bath tissues, paper dinnerware, trash and storage bags, disinfectants, and laundry products; packaged food comprising cereals, pasta, canned soups, fruits and vegetables, condiments, spices, sugar, and flour; and perishables that include milk, eggs, bread, refrigerated and frozen food, beer, and wine.