General Mills Stock Hits a Record High

Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger has been accumulating a stake in General Mills (GIS:US) in the four months between March and July. Serving as the U.S. representative for Tennessee's 1st congressional district, she has been actively buying GIS shares in smaller sizes, hoping the company’s stock will benefit from the consumer’s focus on food products in the environment of rising prices.

General Mills is one of the very few companies that saw its share price hit a record high this year while the S&P 500 trades more than 20% lower year-to-date (YTD). GIS stock is up over 23% YTD despite a selloff on Tuesday on concerns over continued volume declines as hinted in the packaged food company’s second-quarter earnings report.

General Mills stock fell about 4% Tuesday and just a day after hitting a record high of $88.34 per share. The company reported an adjusted EPS of $1.10 on revenue of $5.22 billion, beating the average analyst consensus for earnings of $1.07 on revenue of $5.18 billion.

The food company also raised the full-year forecast for both organic net sales and adjusted EPS, still, shares fell as organic sales volume decreased by 6 points, higher than what analysts were expecting.

Still, the YTD move in GIS stock means Rep. Harshbarger’s position is easily profitable. The Congresswoman was buying GIS shares in the mid $60s in March this year to the low $70s in July. In any case, the Congresswoman is looking at profits of up to 40% on her long positions.

Rep. Harshbarger is a member of the House committees on Education & Labor as well as Homeland Security. She is known as one of the most active traders in Congress, mostly trading in Tech stocks.