Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Buys 4,551 Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. increased its stake in shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 27,548 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,551 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in General Mills were worth $1,743,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 22.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,118,000 after buying an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,074,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $460,858,000 after buying an additional 501,717 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,478,000 after buying an additional 148,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of General Mills by 7.4% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,362,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,459,000 after acquiring an additional 369,628 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GIS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler increased their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $67.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, June 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.93.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $74.90 on Friday. General Mills, Inc. has a 52 week low of $60.33 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.44. The firm has a market cap of $41.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.38, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.65.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. General Mills had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 26.56%. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. General Mills’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th were paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is an increase from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.68%.

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.