Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Decreases Position in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lowered its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 65,244 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,245 shares during the quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in General Mills were worth $4,160,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in General Mills by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,508 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in General Mills by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,907,000 after buying an additional 136,895 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in General Mills by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after buying an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at about $496,484,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,731,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,496,000 after acquiring an additional 670,642 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on GIS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research 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 on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $58.61 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.00. General Mills, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $55.15 and a fifty-two week high of $75.90. The firm has a market cap of $32.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

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

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 4.09%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.75%.

General Mills Profile

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.