Townsquare Capital LLC Purchases 14,919 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 24.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 74,937 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 14,919 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC's holdings in General Mills were worth $4,779,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in General Mills by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after purchasing an additional 1,868,508 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company's stock valued at $923,907,000 after buying an additional 136,895 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position 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 valued at $497,054,000 after buying an additional 3,058,414 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in General Mills during the fourth quarter worth about $496,484,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in General Mills by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,989,111 shares of the company's stock worth $381,926,000 after acquiring an additional 924,982 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on GIS. Barclays dropped their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated 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 began coverage on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, March 24th. They issued 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.69.

Insider Activity at General Mills

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

General Mills Trading Up 1.9 %

GIS stock traded up $1.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $57.52. 3,368,814 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,405,556. General Mills, Inc. has a 52-week low of $55.15 and a 52-week high of $75.90. The stock's fifty day moving average is $59.48 and its 200-day moving average is $62.95. The company has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 EPS 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 business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.17 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills's payout ratio is 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.