Moors & Cabot Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Moors & Cabot Inc. lowered its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,169 shares of the company’s stock after selling 997 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $2,051,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the third quarter valued at approximately $286,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the third quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its position in shares of General Mills by 23.5% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 9,258 shares of the company’s stock valued at $684,000 after buying an additional 1,762 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of General Mills by 0.5% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,594,383 shares of the company’s stock valued at $117,745,000 after buying an additional 8,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of General Mills by 11.6% in the third quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 3,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GIS shares. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.24.

General Mills Price Performance

General Mills stock opened at $60.03 on Thursday. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.15 and a 52-week high of $75.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $60.26 and a 200-day moving average of $65.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.05, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current 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 4.00%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.