Trexquant Investment LP Acquires 123,473 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Trexquant Investment LP raised its position in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Free Report) by 51.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 363,319 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 123,473 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP owned 0.07% of General Mills worth $23,169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GIS. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in General Mills by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company's stock worth $923,907,000 after purchasing an additional 136,895 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 484,550 shares of the company's stock worth $30,900,000 after buying an additional 46,536 shares during the last quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 38.1% during the 4th quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. now owns 173,146 shares of the company's stock worth $11,042,000 after acquiring an additional 47,755 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at about $486,000. Finally, Everstar Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Everstar Asset Management LLC now owns 4,539 shares of the company's stock valued at $289,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GIS has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays lowered their price target 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS stock traded down $1.33 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $59.64. The stock had a trading volume of 7,577,878 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,351,286. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last issued 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 business had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.02%. General Mills's payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In related news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This trade represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.