ProShare Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 7.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 129,137 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,591 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $6,691,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 434.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,041,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,138,473,000 after buying an additional 15,480,835 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in General Mills in the first quarter valued at approximately $279,570,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in General Mills by 4,775.2% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,443,981 shares of the company’s stock worth $205,916,000 after purchasing an additional 3,373,338 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the first quarter worth $92,717,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 178.1% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,520,449 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,908,000 after purchasing an additional 973,798 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GIS. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on General Mills from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Bernstein Bank dropped their price target on General Mills from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $57.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.82.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $47.33 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $45.80 and a 52 week high of $67.40. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $48.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $50.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $25.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of -0.04.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.52 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.2%. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 46.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.