Montecito Bank & Trust Sells 204 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Montecito Bank & Trust lessened its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 2.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,478 shares of the company’s stock after selling 204 shares during the period. Montecito Bank & Trust’s holdings in General Mills were worth $552,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after acquiring an additional 8,444,312 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after buying an additional 2,488,341 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,151,000 after buying an additional 323,090 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,478,000 after buying an additional 148,235 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 100.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $299,138,000 after buying an additional 2,368,563 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GIS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Argus reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of General Mills in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $73.00.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS opened at $64.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $36.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.46, a PEG ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.86 and a 200 day moving average of $69.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. General Mills, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.47 and a fifty-two week high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.70%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 355,328 shares in the company, valued at $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $717,640.33. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 128,664 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,571,314.96. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 66,555 shares of company stock worth $4,657,676 over the last quarter. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

General Mills Profile

General Mills, Inc manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.