General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Purchased by ING Groep NV

ING Groep NV increased its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 21.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 90,563 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,936 shares during the quarter. ING Groep NV’s holdings in General Mills were worth $5,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 22.1% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 237,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,565,000 after acquiring an additional 43,086 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in General Mills by 105.2% in the third 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 in the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at $547,000. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in General Mills by 129.9% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 184,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,649,000 after acquiring an additional 104,436 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on GIS. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.88.

General Mills Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $61.02 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $55.15 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $33.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.89 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.56.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.93%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

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.