Aviance Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Aviance Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 4,768 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Kera Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $222,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in General Mills by 7.3% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 522,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,245,000 after purchasing an additional 35,494 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in General Mills by 7.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 452,844 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,076,000 after purchasing an additional 32,628 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC purchased a new position in General Mills during the first quarter valued at $3,610,000. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 126.1% during the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 774,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,285,000 after buying an additional 431,693 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GIS shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research raised shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of General Mills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of General Mills in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, HSBC reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.82.

General Mills Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE GIS opened at $46.65 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 12 month low of $46.21 and a 12 month high of $68.89. The stock has a market cap of $24.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of -0.03. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $49.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.52 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 23.46% and a net margin of 15.24%.The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.07 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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

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 stock was sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total transaction of $200,160.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.