Jeffrey L. Harmening Sells 46,500 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Stock

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

General Mills Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $68.30 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.92 billion, a PE ratio of 16.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.10. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.47 and a 52-week high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The business’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.51%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after buying an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 22.3% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,151,000 after purchasing an additional 323,090 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,478,000 after purchasing an additional 148,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 7.4% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,362,663 shares of the company’s stock valued at $376,459,000 after purchasing an additional 369,628 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GIS. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.00.

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.