Allianz Asset Management GmbH Lowers Holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Allianz Asset Management GmbH lessened its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 55.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 300,773 shares of the company's stock after selling 373,957 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH owned approximately 0.05% of General Mills worth $17,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gallacher Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 1st quarter worth $639,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 178.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 358,466 shares of the company's stock worth $21,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,902 shares in the last quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 33,078 shares of the company's stock worth $1,978,000 after purchasing an additional 8,523 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 42,895 shares of the company's stock worth $2,564,000 after purchasing an additional 1,693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 98.0% in the 1st quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 21,493 shares of the company's stock worth $1,285,000 after purchasing an additional 10,640 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and issued a $51.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered General Mills from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on General Mills and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, June 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.73.

General Mills Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of GIS traded down $0.74 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $50.33. 1,520,972 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,573,654. The stock has a market cap of $27.30 billion and a P/E ratio of 12.29. The stock's 50-day moving average is $52.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is $56.56. General Mills, Inc. has a 12 month low of $49.04 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.60 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 24.88% and a net margin of 11.78%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.85%. General Mills's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.