Quilter Plc Sells 7,160 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Quilter Plc reduced its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 40.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,746 shares of the company's stock after selling 7,160 shares during the period. Quilter Plc's holdings in General Mills were worth $643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 2.8% in the 4th 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. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in General Mills by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company's stock valued at $923,907,000 after acquiring an additional 136,895 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 2,341,137 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of General Mills by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company's stock worth $514,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at about $496,484,000. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $51.00 target price (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup cut their price target on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $68.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, June 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $60.50.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE GIS opened at $50.38 on Friday. The company's 50 day moving average is $54.48 and its 200-day moving average is $58.47. The firm has a market cap of $27.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.02. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.24 and a 12-month high of $75.90. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) 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 business had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.84%. This is an increase from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. General Mills's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.75%.

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.

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