General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Receives $58.13 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Key Points

• General Mills, Inc. has received an average analyst rating of "Hold", with three analysts recommending a sell, nine a hold, and four a buy.
• The company recently reported a quarterly earnings per share of $0.86, surpassing analyst expectations of $0.82, despite a year-over-year revenue decline of 6.8%.
• General Mills announced an increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.61 per share, reflecting a 4.8% yield for shareholders.

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Hold" from the eighteen analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $55.8235.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on GIS shares. HSBC cut their price target on General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America reduced their price target on General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on General Mills from $57.00 to $52.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an "underweight" rating and set a $45.00 price target (down from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,346,225 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,592,828,000 after acquiring an additional 581,045 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 0.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,572,271 shares of the company's stock worth $1,739,379,000 after buying an additional 250,113 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.4% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,307,064 shares of the company's stock worth $1,000,299,000 after buying an additional 265,870 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in General Mills by 1.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,173,940 shares of the company's stock worth $786,954,000 after purchasing an additional 170,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in General Mills by 8.1% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,864,819 shares of the company's stock worth $589,814,000 after purchasing an additional 741,432 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company's stock.

General Mills Trading Up 0.4%

GIS traded up $0.20 during trading on Friday, hitting $50.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 338,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,686,729. General Mills has a twelve month low of $48.29 and a twelve month high of $74.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $49.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $53.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.50, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of -0.02.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.9%. This is a boost from General Mills's previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 10th. General Mills's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.12%.

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.