ING Groep NV Cuts Stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

ING Groep NV lessened its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 94.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,791 shares of the company's stock after selling 85,772 shares during the period. ING Groep NV's holdings in General Mills were worth $286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Allianz SE raised its stake in General Mills by 76.4% during the 1st quarter. Allianz SE now owns 20,556 shares of the company's stock worth $1,229,000 after acquiring an additional 8,906 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 7.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 452,844 shares of the company's stock worth $27,076,000 after purchasing an additional 32,628 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 35.2% during the 1st quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 228,308 shares of the company's stock valued at $13,495,000 after buying an additional 59,475 shares in the last quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted its holdings in General Mills by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 367,895 shares of the company's stock worth $21,954,000 after buying an additional 25,454 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management increased its stake in General Mills by 33.2% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 3,753,710 shares of the company's stock worth $224,434,000 after buying an additional 935,930 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GIS. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised General Mills from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $63.00 in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America dropped their price target on General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $51.00 price objective (down from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $59.73.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7%

GIS stock traded down $0.35 during trading on Friday, hitting $49.80. The company had a trading volume of 3,781,604 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,367,337. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.15, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of -0.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $51.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.92. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $48.59 and a 52-week high of $75.90. 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 issued its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.60 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 24.88% and a net margin of 11.78%. General Mills's revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 10th. This is a positive change from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%. General Mills's dividend payout ratio is 59.51%.

General Mills 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.