Beacon Capital Management LLC Purchases 180 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Beacon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 47.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 559 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $39,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in General Mills by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in General Mills by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in General Mills by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,074,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,858,000 after purchasing an additional 501,717 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth about $377,205,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in General Mills by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,362,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,459,000 after purchasing an additional 369,628 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of General Mills from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.82.

General Mills Price Performance

NYSE:GIS traded up $0.53 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $67.67. The stock had a trading volume of 4,435,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,090,998. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.77 billion, a PE ratio of 15.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.09. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $60.33 and a 12 month high of $75.88.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total value of $50,104.70. Following the sale, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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