DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Has $56.95 Million Stock Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 5.9% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 967,634 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 54,308 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in General Mills were worth $56,947,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after purchasing an additional 1,868,508 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in General Mills by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,907,000 after acquiring an additional 136,895 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in General Mills by 34.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $581,903,000 after acquiring an additional 2,341,137 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of General Mills by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $514,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,483 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth $496,484,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on General Mills and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.73.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $51.85 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $28.12 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $57.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $50.19 and a 1-year high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.60 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 24.88% and a net margin of 11.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. Analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.71%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.54%.

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.