Wealthfront Advisers LLC Grows Holdings in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 192.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 333,309 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 219,286 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $17,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $1,138,473,000 after acquiring an additional 15,480,835 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 8.1% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,864,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $589,814,000 after purchasing an additional 741,432 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 4.8% in the second quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,588,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $443,173,000 after purchasing an additional 393,135 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 4.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 7,161,951 shares of the company’s stock valued at $428,213,000 after purchasing an additional 315,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 10.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,986,128 shares of the company’s stock valued at $417,674,000 after purchasing an additional 634,393 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 66,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bernstein Bank dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company 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 report on Tuesday, September 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Saturday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.82.

General Mills Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $47.42 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.93. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.27 and a 12-month high of $68.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $25.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.96, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of -0.03.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.52 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.07 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.1%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 46.12%.

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.