General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Raised to $77.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS – Get Rating) had its price target increased by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $76.00 to $77.00 in a research report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on GIS. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday. They issued a hold rating for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of General Mills from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $88.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, December 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a report on Wednesday, December 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $82.94.

General Mills Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $79.79 on Thursday. General Mills has a 12-month low of $61.67 and a 12-month high of $88.34. The stock has a market cap of $47.04 billion, a PE ratio of 16.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average of $78.79 and a 200 day moving average of $79.91.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, December 20th. The company reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 15.02% and a return on equity of 24.09%. The company had revenue of $5.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.15 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that General Mills will post 4.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 10th will be issued a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 6th. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.71%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 45.09%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 1,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.99, for a total value of $168,110.45. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,474,384.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 1,955 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $85.99, for a total value of $168,110.45. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,146 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,474,384.54. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sean N. Walker sold 27,157 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.87, for a total transaction of $2,304,814.59. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 90,975 shares in the company, valued at $7,721,048.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 40,006 shares of company stock worth $3,393,359. 0.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 22,501 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,887,000 after buying an additional 7,136 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of General Mills by 54.3% in the 4th quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 4,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 1,728 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $218,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 37.3% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 702,734 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,924,000 after buying an additional 190,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of General Mills by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Asset Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,362 shares of the company’s stock valued at $701,000 after buying an additional 137 shares during the last quarter. 74.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About General Mills

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General Mills, Inc engages in the manufacture and marketing of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. The firm operates through the following segments: North America Retail, Europe & Australia, Convenience Stores & Foodservice, Pet, and Asia & Latin America. The North America Retail segment includes grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, drug, dollar and discount chains and e-commerce grocery providers.