Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Sells 534 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 257,884 shares of the company’s stock after selling 534 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $16,445,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in General Mills by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in General Mills by 105.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Nepsis Inc. grew its position in General Mills by 3,504.8% in the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,023,000 after acquiring an additional 2,104,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $80,994,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Trading Up 0.8 %

General Mills stock opened at $58.78 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $60.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $65.23. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The stock has a market cap of $32.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.99 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.75%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Citigroup lowered their target price on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.