Pacer Advisors Inc. Decreases Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lowered its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 28.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 70,643 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,243 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $4,505,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in General Mills by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $999,000 after acquiring an additional 148 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 14,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. RFG Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of General Mills by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 6,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $425,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in General Mills by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 10,604 shares of the company’s stock valued at $783,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrive Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in General Mills by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Thrive Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $482,000 after buying an additional 177 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GIS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.94.

General Mills Stock Up 1.3 %

GIS opened at $60.66 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $57.94 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $63.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.36. 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 company has a market cap of $33.44 billion, a PE ratio of 13.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.11.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $63,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,465,007.58. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

About General Mills

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.