Foster & Motley Inc. Sells 2,476 Shares of General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Foster & Motley Inc. lessened its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 36,891 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,476 shares during the period. Foster & Motley Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in General Mills by 434.8% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,041,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,138,473,000 after purchasing an additional 15,480,835 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in General Mills by 8.1% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,864,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $589,814,000 after buying an additional 741,432 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in General Mills by 4.8% during the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,588,624 shares of the company’s stock worth $443,173,000 after buying an additional 393,135 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 4.6% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,161,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $428,213,000 after buying an additional 315,375 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in General Mills by 10.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,986,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $417,674,000 after buying an additional 634,393 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total value of $200,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on GIS. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of General Mills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, Bernstein Bank lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, General Mills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.82.

General Mills Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of GIS opened at $48.48 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of -0.03. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.48 and a 12-month high of $70.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $49.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.32.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.52 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 15.24% and a return on equity of 23.46%. The business’s revenue was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.07 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is 46.12%.

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.