Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on General Mills (NYSE:GIS)

Key Points

• Options traders were notably bearish on General Mills, with put option volume jumping to 11,906 contracts on Monday, about 44% above the normal level.
• Two company insiders sold shares recently: Ricardo Fernandez sold 7,995 shares and Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 10,000 shares, both reducing their positions by roughly 10% to 11%.
• Analysts have turned more cautious on GIS, with several firms cutting price targets and MarketBeat showing an average rating of “Reduce”; the stock also slipped to $33.45, near its 52-week low.

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock traders bought 11,906 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 44% compared to the typical volume of 8,240 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, insider Ricardo Fernandez sold 7,995 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.50, for a total value of $275,827.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 62,283 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,148,763.50. The trade was a 11.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 10,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total transaction of $342,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 86,002 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,947,288.54. This represents a 10.42% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in General Mills in the fourth quarter worth about $361,552,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in General Mills by 2,970.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,466,693 shares of the company's stock worth $347,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,223,487 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in General Mills by 366.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,117,287 shares of the company's stock worth $237,954,000 after purchasing an additional 4,019,319 shares during the period. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills in the second quarter worth about $84,862,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in General Mills by 61.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,141,691 shares of the company's stock worth $192,589,000 after purchasing an additional 1,573,444 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GIS shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on General Mills from $33.00 to $30.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $41.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Bank of America downgraded shares of General Mills from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $48.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $45.00 to $37.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills currently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $42.44.

General Mills Stock Performance

General Mills stock traded up $0.46 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $33.45. 10,504,965 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,024,597. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.86. The firm has a market cap of $17.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.18 and a beta of -0.02. General Mills has a fifty-two week low of $32.79 and a fifty-two week high of $55.35.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $4.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.05% and a return on equity of 19.19%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.12 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that General Mills will post 3.43 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Company Profile

General Mills, Inc NYSE: GIS is a multinational consumer foods company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of branded food products. Its product categories include ready-to-eat and hot cereals, baking mixes and ingredients, snacks and bars, refrigerated and frozen doughs, yogurt and other dairy products, and a variety of shelf-stable meals and meal components. The company's portfolio features widely recognized consumer brands across grocery store, mass channel and foodservice outlets.

Founded in the early 20th century and incorporated under its current name in 1928, General Mills has grown through both internal brand development and strategic expansion to become a global food company.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.