General Mills, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.61 (NYSE:GIS)

Key Points

• General Mills, Inc. has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.61, which will be paid to shareholders on November 3rd, reflecting a yield of 4.9%.
• The company reported earnings of $0.86 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, despite a year-over-year revenue decline of 6.8%.
• General Mills maintains a payout ratio of 57.3%, indicating that it can comfortably cover its annual dividend with upcoming earnings projections.

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, September 29th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of 0.61 per share on Monday, November 3rd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 4.9%.

General Mills has a payout ratio of 57.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 53.8%.

General Mills Price Performance

NYSE:GIS traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $49.63. 4,989,926 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,336,340. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $49.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.23. General Mills has a 1 year low of $48.29 and a 1 year high of $74.85. The company has a market cap of $26.47 billion, a PE ratio of 9.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of -0.02.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.82 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 15.24% and a return on equity of 23.46%. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.52 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.07 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total transaction of $200,160.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares in the company, valued at $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 14.4% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 68,847 shares of the company's stock worth $3,567,000 after purchasing an additional 8,678 shares during the period. Caldwell Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter worth about $184,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 45.8% in the 2nd quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 242,600 shares of the company's stock worth $13,153,000 after acquiring an additional 76,226 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 51,514 shares of the company's stock worth $2,669,000 after acquiring an additional 17,173 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 41,293 shares of the company's stock worth $2,127,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.

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