Hilltop National Bank Makes New Investment in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Hilltop National Bank bought a new position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 8,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $461,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Garde Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 101.5% during the second quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 524 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 264 shares during the last quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 69.2% during the first quarter. Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 516 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of General Mills during the second quarter worth $32,000. Smallwood Wealth Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills during the first quarter worth $34,000. Finally, GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of General Mills during the first quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total value of $200,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,313.72. The trade was a 5.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS stock opened at $50.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of -0.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $48.29 and a 12-month high of $73.78. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.05.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.52 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 15.24% and a return on equity of 23.46%. General Mills’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.07 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.8%. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 46.12%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 19th. HSBC cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.82.

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.