Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Blair William & Co. IL cut its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 127,270 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,595 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in General Mills were worth $8,116,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in General Mills by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. grew its holdings in General Mills by 3,504.8% during the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in General Mills by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,376,573,000 after buying an additional 1,868,508 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GIS shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Citigroup cut their target price on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $59.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $32.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.85, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The business has a 50 day moving average of $59.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.67. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

General Mills Company 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.