Cooke & Bieler LP Sells 9,690 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Cooke & Bieler LP decreased its holdings in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 66.0% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,000 shares of the company's stock after selling 9,690 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP's holdings in General Mills were worth $299,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Perkins Coie Trust Co raised its position in shares of General Mills by 69.2% during the 1st quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 516 shares of the company's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Transce3nd LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $38,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley restated an "underweight" rating and issued a $51.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded General Mills from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $63.00 in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Two equities research 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, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.73.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $50.13. 4,325,880 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,729,649. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $49.62 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $53.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.12. The firm has a market cap of $27.19 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.87%. This is a boost from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. General Mills's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.