Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Cuts Position in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 73.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 94,089 shares of the company’s stock after selling 264,377 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $4,875,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Garde Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 101.5% during the second quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of General Mills during the 1st quarter worth approximately $34,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. purchased a new stake in General Mills during the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Pingora Partners LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 416.7% in the first quarter. Pingora Partners LLC now owns 620 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on GIS shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of General Mills in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Bernstein Bank reduced their target price on General Mills from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research upgraded General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group lowered their price target on General Mills from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 8th. Four investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.82.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In related news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total transaction of $200,160.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,313.72. This trade 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 at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $46.89 on Monday. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $45.80 and a 52 week high of $67.40. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $49.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $25.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of -0.04.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. The company 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%. General Mills’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. On average, sell-side 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.2%. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 46.12%.

General Mills 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.