Cerity Partners LLC Boosts Stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 264,038 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,577 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $17,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC boosted its position in General Mills by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 268 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in General Mills by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 834,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,211,000 after buying an additional 85,612 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in General Mills by 105.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after buying an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 484,550 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,900,000 after buying an additional 46,536 shares during the period. Finally, J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter worth $547,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

General Mills Trading Up 2.6 %

NYSE GIS opened at $58.16 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market cap of $32.06 billion, a PE ratio of 12.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.15. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $59.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. The company 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%. General Mills’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. Analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid 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 4.13%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.69.

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.