Ceera Investments LLC Buys 725 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Ceera Investments LLC increased its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,666 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the quarter. Ceera Investments LLC’s holdings in General Mills were worth $566,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Values First Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in General Mills during the third quarter worth $27,000. First Foundation Advisors raised its holdings in General Mills by 400.0% during the second quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 500 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp raised its holdings in General Mills by 61.5% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 507 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in General Mills by 47.5% during the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 559 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in General Mills during the third quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 8,083 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.28, for a total value of $576,156.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,055,870.64. This represents a 35.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the 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 in the company, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,555 shares of company stock valued at $4,657,676 over the last three months. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GIS has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.67.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS opened at $63.21 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $35.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $70.67 and a 200 day moving average of $68.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. General Mills, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $61.47 and a fifty-two week high of $75.90.

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

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 57.14%.

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.