Accuvest Global Advisors Makes New $488,000 Investment in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Key Points

• Accuvest Global Advisors made a new investment of $488,000 in General Mills, acquiring 8,163 shares during the first quarter of the year.
• General Mills recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.60 to $0.61 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 4.9%.
• Despite a slight decline in quarterly revenue by 3.3% year-over-year, General Mills surpassed analysts' earnings per share estimates, reporting $0.74 per share for the last quarter.

Accuvest Global Advisors acquired a new position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,163 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $488,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 641,045 shares of the company's stock valued at $40,879,000 after acquiring an additional 50,987 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in General Mills by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,858,595 shares of the company's stock worth $118,523,000 after purchasing an additional 153,825 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in General Mills by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 264,038 shares of the company's stock valued at $17,063,000 after buying an additional 2,577 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,989,111 shares of the company's stock valued at $381,926,000 after buying an additional 924,982 shares during the period. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its position in General Mills by 91.4% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 10,279 shares of the company's stock worth $655,000 after purchasing an additional 4,909 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GIS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on General Mills and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Mills presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $59.73.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7%

GIS traded down $0.35 during trading on Friday, hitting $49.80. 3,781,604 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,367,337. 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 firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.92. The firm has a market cap of $27.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of -0.01.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a $0.61 dividend. This is an increase from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. General Mills's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.