Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Sells 1,165 Shares of General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. reduced its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,906 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,165 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $3,933,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Garde Capital Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 264 shares in the last quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new stake in General Mills during the first quarter worth $34,000. MJT & Associates Financial Advisory Group Inc. bought a new stake in General Mills during the first quarter worth $37,000. Pingora Partners LLC raised its position in General Mills by 416.7% during the first quarter. Pingora Partners LLC now owns 620 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of General Mills in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GIS shares. Zacks Research raised shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of General Mills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (down from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Four investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.82.

General Mills Price Performance

NYSE:GIS opened at $46.65 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $46.21 and a 52 week high of $68.89. The firm has a market cap of $24.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of -0.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.66.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 15.24% and a return on equity of 23.46%. The business had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.07 earnings per share. General Mills’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total transaction of $200,160.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares in the company, valued at $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate 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.