Wealth Architects LLC Takes Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Wealth Architects LLC bought a new stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 3,950 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. J2 Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $547,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 72,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,652,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on GIS shares. Barclays reduced 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. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen reduced 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.71.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE:GIS opened at $61.01 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market cap of $33.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.15 and a 1-year high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 earnings per share. General Mills’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

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

General Mills 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.