Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $13.75 Million Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Advisors Capital Management LLC raised its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 215,571 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 982 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $13,747,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $496,484,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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 worth $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. Nepsis Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 3,504.8% during the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after buying an additional 1,868,508 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GIS. Mizuho dropped their price objective on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays lowered their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE GIS opened at $57.92 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $31.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.59, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. General Mills, Inc. has a twelve month low of $55.15 and a twelve month high of $75.90. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.37.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The company’s revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.14%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

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.