General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Position Cut by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 488,698 shares of the company’s stock after selling 31,343 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in General Mills were worth $31,164,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 27.9% during the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,121 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,117,000 after purchasing an additional 3,303 shares in the last quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 8.3% during the third quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 21.7% during the third quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. now owns 11,841 shares of the company’s stock valued at $874,000 after purchasing an additional 2,115 shares in the last quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI bought a new stake in shares of General Mills during the third quarter valued at about $262,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 3.2% during the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 21,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,581,000 after purchasing an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $59.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $32.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.86, a PEG ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.10. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.61. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.25 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. 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 4.06%. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GIS shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.88.

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.