OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Buys 25,454 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Key Points

• OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its stake in General Mills by 7.4% during the first quarter, owning approximately 0.07% of the company, valued at $21,954,000.
• General Mills reported earnings of $0.74 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations of $0.72, despite a 3.3% revenue decrease year-over-year.
• The company recently raised its quarterly dividend to $0.61 per share, reflecting a 5.0% dividend yield and demonstrating a positive change in shareholder returns.

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd raised its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 7.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 367,895 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 25,454 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd owned about 0.07% of General Mills worth $21,954,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 1st quarter worth $279,570,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 4,775.2% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,443,981 shares of the company's stock worth $205,916,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,338 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted 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 valued at $581,903,000 after acquiring an additional 2,341,137 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in General Mills by 115.2% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 2,817,780 shares of the company's stock valued at $179,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,508,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in General Mills by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company's stock valued at $514,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253,483 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price target on shares of General Mills and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of General Mills from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Sunday. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $51.00 price target (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of General Mills from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $67.00 to $63.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $59.73.

General Mills Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of GIS traded down $0.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $48.94. 5,271,208 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,752,542. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.23. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.59 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The company has a market cap of $26.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.94, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of -0.01.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. 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 analyst estimates of $4.60 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

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