Martingale Asset Management L P Cuts Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Martingale Asset Management L P decreased its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 63.5% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 11,248 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,530 shares during the quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P’s holdings in General Mills were worth $831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 6.1% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,151,000 after acquiring an additional 323,090 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in General Mills by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,478,000 after purchasing an additional 148,235 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 100.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $299,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,368,563 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in General Mills by 7.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,823,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $282,347,000 after purchasing an additional 263,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc increased its position in shares of General Mills by 3.9% in the third quarter. abrdn plc now owns 2,492,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,778,000 after buying an additional 92,931 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $717,640.33. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 128,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,571,314.96. This trade represents a 6.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $63,660.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,555 shares of company stock worth $4,721,336. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

General Mills Stock Up 1.2 %

GIS opened at $67.06 on Tuesday. General Mills, Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.47 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The business has a 50-day moving average of $68.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.11.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. General Mills’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.51 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, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GIS shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays lifted their price objective on General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.67.

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.