Rodgers Brothers Inc. Buys 47,755 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Rodgers Brothers Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 38.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 173,146 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,755 shares during the quarter. General Mills makes up approximately 1.4% of Rodgers Brothers Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Rodgers Brothers Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $11,042,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $496,484,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of General Mills by 64.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after buying an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Finally, Nepsis Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 3,504.8% during the fourth quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,023,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104,353 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of General Mills in a research report on Monday, March 24th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $53.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.69.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS stock opened at $59.09 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.61. The company has a market capitalization of $32.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.15 and a 52-week high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.