General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Bought by Cardinal Capital Management

Cardinal Capital Management increased its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 120,288 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,359 shares during the period. General Mills makes up approximately 1.2% of Cardinal Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Cardinal Capital Management’s holdings in General Mills were worth $7,671,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GIS. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC increased its stake in General Mills by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of General Mills by 22.1% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 237,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,565,000 after acquiring an additional 43,086 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position 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 worth $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares in the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $547,000. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in General Mills by 129.9% in the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 184,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,649,000 after purchasing an additional 104,436 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on GIS shares. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup lowered their target price on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.13.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS opened at $58.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company has a market cap of $32.44 billion, a PE ratio of 12.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.10. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $61.61 and a 200-day moving average of $66.87. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $57.85 and a 52-week high of $75.90.

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 company had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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 paid 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 Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,716,546.50. This trade 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 this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

General Mills Company 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.