Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stock Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 759,520 shares of the company’s stock after selling 33,473 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $48,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 22.1% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 237,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,565,000 after purchasing an additional 43,086 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 105.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $547,000. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in General Mills by 129.9% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 184,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,649,000 after buying an additional 104,436 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GIS shares. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.88.

General Mills Trading Up 2.0 %

GIS stock opened at $59.15 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $32.61 billion, a PE ratio of 12.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.10. General Mills, Inc. has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $61.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 52.17%.

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.