Centiva Capital LP Takes Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Centiva Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $272,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 10.7% during the 2nd quarter. Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. now owns 8,277 shares of the company’s stock valued at $524,000 after acquiring an additional 801 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 4.9% during the second quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 7,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $485,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in General Mills in the second quarter worth $257,000. Ellsworth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in General Mills during the second quarter valued at $4,453,000. Finally, Kennedy Investment Group boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 35,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,239,000 after buying an additional 577 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS opened at $65.50 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.76, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $61.47 and a one year high of $75.90. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.63 and a 200 day moving average of $68.25.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $63,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,465,007.58. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total transaction of $173,514.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 67,555 shares of company stock valued at $4,721,336. 0.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIS has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Barclays boosted their price target on General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. One research 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.67.

About General Mills

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.