General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Shares Sold by Sentry Investment Management LLC

Sentry Investment Management LLC decreased its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 17.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,610 shares of the company’s stock after selling 534 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 22.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in General Mills by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,074,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,858,000 after acquiring an additional 501,717 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in General Mills in the 4th quarter worth $377,205,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in General Mills by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,362,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,459,000 after acquiring an additional 369,628 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on General Mills from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Mizuho reduced their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Bank of America raised their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.53.

General Mills Trading Down 0.1 %

GIS stock opened at $73.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. General Mills, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.33 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The stock has a market cap of $40.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.94, a PEG ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.10. The business’s 50-day moving average is $68.51 and its 200 day moving average is $68.09.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.02. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.56% and a net margin of 12.57%. The company had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.12 EPS. General Mills’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 55.68%.

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.