HighTower Advisors LLC Buys 49,630 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,917,145 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 49,630 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC owned about 0.35% of General Mills worth $122,256,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 9.4% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after buying an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 64.5% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after buying an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after buying an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 4,082,376 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,902,000 after buying an additional 360,368 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,004,777 shares of the company’s stock valued at $255,385,000 after buying an additional 207,346 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GIS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays lowered their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.24.

General Mills Trading Down 3.7 %

NYSE:GIS opened at $60.03 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.83. The stock has a market cap of $33.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.15 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.00%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.17%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This trade represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.