Bank of Montreal Can Increases Stock Position in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Bank of Montreal Can increased its stake in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 1.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,499,792 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 75,330 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $780,939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of PG. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 21,632,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,567,556,000 after purchasing an additional 122,190 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 18,380,610 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,183,522,000 after purchasing an additional 830,476 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Procter & Gamble by 0.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 16,422,470 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,844,442,000 after purchasing an additional 105,734 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,691,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,598,510,000 after buying an additional 733,440 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 7,005,790 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,213,403,000 after purchasing an additional 39,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PG has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $179.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $164.00 price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Procter & Gamble to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $180.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 634 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.65, for a total transaction of $108,826.10. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,341 shares in the company, valued at $3,319,882.65. The trade was a 3.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jon R. Moeller sold 37,240 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.89, for a total value of $6,289,463.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 263,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,508,763.93. This represents a 12.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 72,473 shares of company stock worth $12,313,697. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:PG traded up $1.48 during trading on Monday, reaching $177.76. The stock had a trading volume of 1,351,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,666,274. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $170.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $168.66. The company has a market capitalization of $418.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.39, a PEG ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The Procter & Gamble Company has a one year low of $142.50 and a one year high of $178.82.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 18th. The company reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 17.07% and a return on equity of 33.25%. The company had revenue of $21.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $21.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.83 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $1.0065 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $4.03 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is 69.48%.

Procter & Gamble Company Profile

The Procter & Gamble Company engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods worldwide. The company 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, SK-II, and Native brands.