Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Reduces Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System decreased its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 7.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,815 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,398 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,901,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GIS. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its holdings in General Mills by 1.4% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 130,210 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,616,000 after buying an additional 1,758 shares during the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in General Mills by 6.9% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 45,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,325,000 after buying an additional 2,907 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC increased its holdings in General Mills by 4.7% in the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 71,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,254,000 after buying an additional 3,178 shares during the last quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc increased its holdings in General Mills by 5.3% in the third quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 8,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $622,000 after buying an additional 427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in General Mills in the third quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. TD Cowen lowered their target price 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, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Mills has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.53.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $58.78 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.15 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $65.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 4.08%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.