Maridea Wealth Management LLC Purchases New Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Maridea Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,908 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GIS. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in General Mills during the fourth quarter worth $496,484,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 64.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nepsis Inc. raised its holdings in General Mills by 3,504.8% in the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on GIS shares. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target 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, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on General Mills in a research note on Monday, March 24th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $53.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.69.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of GIS opened at $59.09 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.67. The stock has a market cap of $32.57 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills, Inc. has a 1-year low of $55.15 and a 1-year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.