B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Buys 2,865 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 21.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 16,024 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,865 shares during the quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,025,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP bought a new stake in General Mills during the first quarter worth about $29,199,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 1.3% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 91,230 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,382,000 after acquiring an additional 1,141 shares in the last quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP boosted its stake in General Mills by 282.0% during the first quarter. Bayesian Capital Management LP now owns 58,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,079,000 after acquiring an additional 43,037 shares in the last quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 5.7% during the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 755,403 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,856,000 after acquiring an additional 40,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in General Mills by 8.9% during the first quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 35,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,486,000 after acquiring an additional 2,917 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GIS shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Argus reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of General Mills from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.82.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS opened at $67.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $37.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.70, a PEG ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.09. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.33 and a 1-year high of $75.77. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.38.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 26.56%. The company’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is a positive change from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.55%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total transaction of $50,104.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,397 shares in the company, valued at $1,227,706.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.