Brookstone Capital Management Cuts Stock Holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Brookstone Capital Management trimmed its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 10.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,902 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,556 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in General Mills were worth $903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Trust Company N.A purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth about $50,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Optimist Retirement Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth about $1,171,000. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 122.7% in the 4th quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 23,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,542,000 after buying an additional 13,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sabal Trust CO boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 7,817.6% in the 4th quarter. Sabal Trust CO now owns 290,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,902,000 after buying an additional 286,514 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GIS opened at $63.26 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $68.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.75. The company has a market capitalization of $35.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.40. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.33 and a 1-year high of $77.63.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 26.56%. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.12 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This is an increase from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.79%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total transaction of $50,104.70. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,227,706.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of General Mills from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.44.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.