LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI Sells 973 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI reduced its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,685 shares of the company’s stock after selling 973 shares during the quarter. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI’s holdings in General Mills were worth $426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in General Mills by 64.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after buying an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in General Mills by 100.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $299,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,368,563 shares during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in General Mills by 6,140.4% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 945,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,807,000 after acquiring an additional 930,271 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 8,083 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.28, for a total transaction of $576,156.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 14,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,055,870.64. This trade represents a 35.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 56,624 shares of company stock worth $3,897,326 over the last 90 days. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS traded down $1.57 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $58.80. The company had a trading volume of 2,398,606 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,917,763. The stock has a market cap of $32.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. General Mills, Inc. has a 1 year low of $58.69 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.74.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.17%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GIS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America raised General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on General Mills from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.31.

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.