General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Sold by Schroder Investment Management Group

Schroder Investment Management Group lessened its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 15.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 92,394 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,996 shares during the quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in General Mills were worth $5,855,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GIS. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at about $496,484,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in General Mills by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 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 buying an additional 2,104,353 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GIS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Barclays cut their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.69.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of GIS opened at $59.64 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $32.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.15 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.97 and a 200-day moving average of $64.26.

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

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.02%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. This trade represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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.