General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have assigned a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $71.31.

GIS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on General Mills from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $59.64 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.97, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.11. 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 business’s fifty day moving average price is $63.76 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.52. General Mills has a twelve month low of $57.94 and a twelve month high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.02%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total value of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 48,541 shares of company stock worth $3,321,170. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. State Street Corp boosted its position in General Mills by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of General Mills by 6.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,151,000 after acquiring an additional 323,090 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in General Mills by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $342,478,000 after purchasing an additional 148,235 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About General Mills

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.