General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Bought by ICW Investment Advisors LLC

ICW Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 24,531 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 351 shares during the quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,564,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GIS. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Trading Up 0.8 %

General Mills stock opened at $58.78 on Monday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $32.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $60.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $65.17.

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

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

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 transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This 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. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on GIS. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of 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. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.53.

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.