General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Bought by Welch Group LLC

Welch Group LLC raised its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 11.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 763,572 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 78,584 shares during the quarter. Welch Group LLC owned 0.14% of General Mills worth $45,135,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company's stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 834,417 shares of the company's stock valued at $53,211,000 after acquiring an additional 85,612 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company's stock valued at $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 484,550 shares of the company's stock valued at $30,900,000 after acquiring an additional 46,536 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 34.5% during 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 17th. Barclays reduced their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Mizuho cut their price target on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on General Mills in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. They set a "sell" rating and a $54.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $64.69.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS stock traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, hitting $54.19. The stock had a trading volume of 8,115,716 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,520,667. The company's 50 day moving average price is $56.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a market cap of $29.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.05. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $52.39 and a 1-year high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company's stock.

About General Mills

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.