Rock Point Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in General Mills, Inc. $GIS

Rock Point Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 15.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 78,708 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,932 shares during the quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $3,660,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in General Mills by 0.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,717,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,700,060,000 after acquiring an additional 145,701 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in General Mills by 15.9% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,956,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $494,548,000 after purchasing an additional 1,368,041 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in General Mills by 13.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,664,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $386,469,000 after purchasing an additional 883,150 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in General Mills by 22.2% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,628,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in General Mills by 0.3% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,585,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $281,601,000 after purchasing an additional 16,028 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GIS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on General Mills from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on General Mills from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on General Mills from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on General Mills from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded General Mills from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $42.83.

General Mills Trading Up 0.9%

NYSE GIS opened at $34.10 on Wednesday. General Mills, Inc. has a 12 month low of $33.37 and a 12 month high of $55.35. The stock has a market cap of $18.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.34 and a beta of -0.02. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.09). General Mills had a return on equity of 19.19% and a net margin of 12.05%.The company had revenue of $4.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 3.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Profile

General Mills, Inc (NYSE: GIS) is a multinational consumer foods company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of branded food products. Its product categories include ready-to-eat and hot cereals, baking mixes and ingredients, snacks and bars, refrigerated and frozen doughs, yogurt and other dairy products, and a variety of shelf-stable meals and meal components. The company’s portfolio features widely recognized consumer brands across grocery store, mass channel and foodservice outlets.

Founded in the early 20th century and incorporated under its current name in 1928, General Mills has grown through both internal brand development and strategic expansion to become a global food company.