Lakeside Advisors INC. Lowers Holdings in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Lakeside Advisors INC. lowered its holdings in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,641 shares of the company’s stock after selling 396 shares during the quarter. Procter & Gamble comprises about 4.1% of Lakeside Advisors INC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position. Lakeside Advisors INC.’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $5,955,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Procter & Gamble by 1.1% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 46,754,131 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,936,343,000 after purchasing an additional 510,559 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 44,320,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,717,246,000 after acquiring an additional 4,959,527 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 96,526.4% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 38,535,557 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,840,449,000 after acquiring an additional 38,495,676 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 9.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 35,608,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,193,916,000 after acquiring an additional 3,047,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 2.3% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,313,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,275,616,000 after acquiring an additional 670,862 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PG has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James raised their price target on Procter & Gamble from $170.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Procter & Gamble from $162.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Procter & Gamble from $169.00 to $162.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Procter & Gamble from $156.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Procter & Gamble from $170.00 to $172.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $168.53.

Procter & Gamble Stock Up 0.3 %

PG stock traded up $0.50 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $155.95. The company had a trading volume of 6,103,296 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,114,070. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $159.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $152.77. The company has a market capitalization of $366.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.12, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.44. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 52 week low of $141.45 and a 52 week high of $163.14.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The company reported $1.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $21.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $21.48 billion. Procter & Gamble had a return on equity of 34.04% and a net margin of 17.60%. The business’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that The Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 19th will be paid a dividend of $1.0065 per share. This is an increase from Procter & Gamble’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 18th. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is currently 62.98%.

Insider Transactions at Procter & Gamble

In other news, CEO Ma. Fatima Francisco sold 74,443 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.30, for a total transaction of $11,412,111.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,160.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ma. Fatima Francisco sold 74,443 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.30, for a total value of $11,412,111.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,160.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Marc S. Pritchard sold 101,704 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.57, for a total value of $15,618,683.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 163,428 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,097,637.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 279,063 shares of company stock worth $43,187,745. 0.17% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Procter & Gamble

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.