General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Sold by Confluence Wealth Services Inc.

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lowered its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,052 shares of the company’s stock after selling 710 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $539,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake 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 worth $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Nepsis Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 3,504.8% in the fourth quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in General Mills by 6,114.0% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 450,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,266,000 after buying an additional 443,202 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on GIS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays dropped their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America upgraded General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $70.94.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In related news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $63,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 23,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $59.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $62.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.27. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $57.94 and a one year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.25 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

General Mills Company 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.