Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Sells 200 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 1.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,250 shares of the company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,348,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 16.3% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,118,000 after buying an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 100.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,138,000 after buying an additional 2,368,563 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 6,140.4% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 945,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,807,000 after buying an additional 930,271 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the 1st quarter valued at about $36,177,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS stock opened at $64.71 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $71.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The stock has a market cap of $35.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.11. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.47 and a 52-week high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.01. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. The business had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.51 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.71%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.14%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total value of $173,514.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,555 shares of company stock worth $4,657,676. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on GIS shares. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on General Mills from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $73.00.

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.