Alpine Bank Wealth Management Acquires New Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 11,031 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $660,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GIS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $496,484,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in General Mills by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company's stock worth $581,903,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341,137 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in General Mills by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after purchasing an additional 1,868,508 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 115.2% in the fourth quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,817,780 shares of the company's stock worth $179,690,000 after purchasing an additional 1,508,680 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter worth about $80,994,000. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of General Mills from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $67.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group dropped their target price on General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reissued an "underweight" rating and set a $51.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $60.50.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE GIS traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $50.38. 7,684,104 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,606,334. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $54.62 and a 200 day moving average of $58.57. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.25 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The company has a market cap of $27.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a $0.61 dividend. This is a positive change from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.84%. General Mills's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.75%.

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.