General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Sold by Prudential PLC

Prudential PLC cut its holdings in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 3.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 312,333 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,253 shares during the period. Prudential PLC owned approximately 0.06% of General Mills worth $18,674,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in General Mills by 434.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,041,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,138,473,000 after acquiring an additional 15,480,835 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of General Mills by 34.5% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in General Mills by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $514,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,483 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,846,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $436,606,000 after purchasing an additional 561,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.9% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,403,879 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,888,000 after buying an additional 414,768 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on GIS shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays cut their target price on 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. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $51.00 price target (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on shares of General Mills and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, June 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.73.

General Mills Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE:GIS opened at $49.35 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.67. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $48.59 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The stock has a market cap of $26.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of -0.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.79.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a $0.61 dividend. This is a positive change from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 59.51%.

General Mills Company 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.