General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Given New $72.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its target price lowered by stock analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $78.00 to $72.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price suggests a potential upside of 19.26% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America upgraded General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Barclays dropped their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.94.

General Mills Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $60.37 on Friday. General Mills has a 1-year low of $57.94 and a 1-year high of $75.90. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $63.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.25 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $63,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. This trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. This trade represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position 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 worth $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Nepsis Inc. increased its position in shares of General Mills by 3,504.8% during the 4th quarter. Nepsis Inc. now owns 2,164,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,023,000 after purchasing an additional 2,104,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in General Mills by 6,114.0% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 450,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,266,000 after buying an additional 443,202 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Company 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.