500 Shares in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Acquired by VSM Wealth Advisory LLC

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. State Street Corp lifted its stake in General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in General Mills by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in General Mills by 105.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in General Mills by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 4,082,376 shares of the company’s stock worth $248,902,000 after purchasing an additional 360,368 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in General Mills by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,004,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $255,385,000 after purchasing an additional 207,346 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.76.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. This trade represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS stock opened at $58.31 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $59.99 and its 200 day moving average is $65.37. The firm has a market cap of $32.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

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

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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 $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.12%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.17%.

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.