Stevens Capital Management LP Buys 206 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 2.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,541 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 206 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in General Mills were worth $511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth approximately $496,484,000. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the 1st quarter worth approximately $279,570,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 4,775.2% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,443,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,338 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,903,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341,137 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 115.2% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,817,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508,680 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GIS. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of General Mills from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $67.00 to $63.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $51.00 price target (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.73.

General Mills Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $51.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.72 billion and a P/E ratio of 12.46. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $52.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $56.62. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $49.04 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.60 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 24.88%. The business’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.77%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 59.51%.

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.