Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA Makes New Investment in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG)

Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA acquired a new position in shares of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 11,539 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,903,000. Procter & Gamble makes up approximately 2.3% of Wedgewood Investors Inc. PA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,956,117,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings 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 valued at $579,017,000 after acquiring an additional 1,907,716 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the first quarter valued at approximately $233,788,000. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new position in shares of Procter & Gamble in the first quarter valued at approximately $228,212,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Procter & Gamble by 32.7% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,615,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $830,256,000 after acquiring an additional 1,385,146 shares in the last quarter. 65.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on PG. Citigroup upped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $177.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Dbs Bank downgraded Procter & Gamble from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $181.00 to $179.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Procter & Gamble from $157.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.95.

Procter & Gamble Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:PG traded down $0.98 on Friday, reaching $169.17. 4,771,267 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,597,829. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $167.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $163.68. The Procter & Gamble Company has a 52 week low of $141.45 and a 52 week high of $171.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $399.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

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

Procter & Gamble Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 19th were issued a $1.0065 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 19th. This represents a $4.03 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. Procter & Gamble’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 65.69%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Procter & Gamble news, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 450 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total value of $76,149.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 13,072 shares in the company, valued at $2,212,043.84. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Balaji Purushothaman sold 8,842 shares of Procter & Gamble 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 11,537 shares in the company, valued at $1,902,451.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Susan Street Whaley sold 450 shares of Procter & Gamble stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.22, for a total transaction of $76,149.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 13,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,212,043.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 223,259 shares of company stock worth $37,948,393 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.17% of the company’s stock.

Procter & Gamble 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.