Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Sells 606 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,570 shares of the company’s stock after selling 606 shares during the period. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $355,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Bank of Jackson Hole Trust purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:GIS opened at $58.78 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business’s revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.08%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased 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. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price 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, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.53.

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.