General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Sold by Deutsche Bank AG

Key Points

• Deutsche Bank AG reduced its stake in General Mills, cutting its holdings by 6.6% during the first quarter, now owning approximately 3.31 million shares valued at about $197.9 million.
• General Mills declared a quarterly dividend of $0.61, reflecting a yield of 4.9%, which is an increase from the previous dividend of $0.60.
• Several analysts have revised their price targets on General Mills, with Morgan Stanley lowering its target to $51, while Royal Bank of Canada upgraded its rating to "outperform" with a target of $63.

Deutsche Bank AG reduced its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,310,176 shares of the company's stock after selling 233,223 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG owned about 0.60% of General Mills worth $197,915,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of GIS. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 434.8% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,041,194 shares of the company's stock worth $1,138,473,000 after purchasing an additional 15,480,835 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 34.5% during the fourth 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 last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company's stock worth $514,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,483 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 6,846,576 shares of the company's stock worth $436,606,000 after purchasing an additional 561,731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,351,735 shares of the company's stock worth $405,035,000 after purchasing an additional 509,268 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GIS shares. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock 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. UBS Group lowered their price objective on General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut 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 research report on Monday, June 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded General Mills from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Sunday, August 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $59.73.

General Mills Trading Down 0.3%

GIS traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $49.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,269,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,579,511. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.00, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of -0.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $51.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $55.79. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $48.59 and a 52-week high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last posted 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 company had revenue of $4.56 billion during 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 firm's revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. This is an increase from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. 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.