Appleton Partners Inc. MA Buys 770 Shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA grew its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:PG) by 1.2% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 66,116 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the quarter. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Procter & Gamble were worth $11,267,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of PG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Procter & Gamble by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 229,794,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,524,976,000 after purchasing an additional 1,592,061 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Procter & Gamble by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 56,472,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,457,000,000 after buying an additional 1,267,419 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,244,463,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 29,395,208 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,928,107,000 after acquiring an additional 2,703,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 20,197,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,386,194,000 after acquiring an additional 1,209,275 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PG shares. Morgan Stanley set a $180.00 target price on Procter & Gamble and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Procter & Gamble from $185.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $160.00 to $164.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 5th. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Procter & Gamble from $181.00 to $172.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $178.86.

Procter & Gamble Price Performance

PG stock opened at $158.93 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $163.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $166.13. Procter & Gamble Company has a 52-week low of $156.58 and a 52-week high of $180.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $372.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.23, a PEG ratio of 4.66 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $1.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.01. Procter & Gamble had a net margin of 18.46% and a return on equity of 32.67%. The firm had revenue of $19.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $20.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Procter & Gamble Company will post 6.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Procter & Gamble Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 21st were issued a $1.0568 dividend. This is a positive change from Procter & Gamble’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. This represents a $4.23 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 21st. Procter & Gamble’s payout ratio is presently 66.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Jennifer L. Davis sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.38, for a total value of $161,380.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 51,965 shares in the company, valued at $8,386,111.70. The trade was a 1.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Moses Victor Javier Aguilar sold 10,520 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.67, for a total transaction of $1,669,208.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 25,182 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,995,627.94. The trade was a 29.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Procter & Gamble Profile

Procter & Gamble Co engages in the provision of branded consumer packaged goods. It operates through the following segments: Beauty, Grooming, Health Care, Fabric and Home Care, and Baby, Feminine and Family Care. The Beauty segment offers hair, skin, and personal care. The Grooming segment consists of shave care like female and male blades and razors, pre and post shave products, and appliances.