The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) Shares Sold by Wealth Alliance

Wealth Alliance lessened its stake in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,526 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,750 shares during the period. Procter & Gamble comprises approximately 0.6% of Wealth Alliance’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Wealth Alliance’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $4,375,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 16,292.0% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 3,675,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $606,230,000 after acquiring an additional 3,653,477 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 114.9% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 3,568,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $579,017,000 after acquiring an additional 1,907,716 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the first quarter worth $233,788,000. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP acquired a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble during the first quarter worth $228,212,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 24.4% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 5,560,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $902,254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089,102 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PG shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Procter & Gamble from $171.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Procter & Gamble from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $190.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Procter & Gamble has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $175.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total transaction of $1,458,045.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at $1,902,451.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 72,174 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.01, for a total value of $12,342,475.74. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 263,158 shares in the company, valued at $45,002,649.58. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.90, for a total transaction of $1,458,045.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at $1,902,451.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 375,553 shares of company stock worth $63,829,141. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Procter & Gamble Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Procter & Gamble stock opened at $175.93 on Wednesday. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 52-week low of $141.45 and a 52-week high of $177.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $169.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $165.49. The firm has a market cap of $415.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.41.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.37 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.71% and a return on equity of 33.46%. The business had revenue of $20.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 19th were paid a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.85%.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

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.