Townsquare Capital LLC Raises Stock Holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 24.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,937 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 14,919 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $4,779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $496,484,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

General Mills Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $57.92 on Monday. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.15 and a 1-year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The business’s 50 day moving average is $59.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.59, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.15.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued 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 (DPR) is presently 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills 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 transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays lowered their price target 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. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 24th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $53.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. One research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.