Sapient Capital LLC Takes Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 5,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $339,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in General Mills by 123,599.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,076,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,723,000 after purchasing an additional 11,067,051 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in General Mills during the fourth quarter worth $382,081,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in General Mills by 101.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,935,085 shares of the company’s stock worth $592,673,000 after purchasing an additional 3,496,741 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in General Mills by 48.7% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,051,607 shares of the company’s stock worth $325,728,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,111 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 14.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,249,549 shares of the company’s stock valued at $691,725,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051,169 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 10,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.21, for a total transaction of $692,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 93,381 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,462,899.01. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 60,056 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.44, for a total value of $3,870,008.64. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 318,483 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,523,044.52. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 10,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.21, for a total transaction of $692,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 93,381 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,462,899.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 77,782 shares of company stock valued at $5,057,820 in the last 90 days. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen increased their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on General Mills from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $77.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Barclays increased their price objective on General Mills from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.18.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $66.20 on Monday. General Mills, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $60.33 and a fifty-two week high of $90.89. The stock has a market cap of $37.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.18, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $66.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.14.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 20th. The company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.12. General Mills had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 26.84%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.13%.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.