General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers 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 salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Häagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Lärabar, Latina, Liberté, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
GIS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, June 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, July 1st. Finally, Credit Suisse Group set a $74.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, July 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.73.
General Mills Stock Performance
NYSE:GIS traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $77.00. The stock had a trading volume of 2,409,390 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,283,443. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $69.99. General Mills has a 12-month low of $56.67 and a 12-month high of $78.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $45.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.35.
General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 29th. The company reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.11. General Mills had a net margin of 14.25% and a return on equity of 23.74%. The firm had revenue of $4.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.81 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. General Mills's quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that General Mills will post 4 EPS for the current year.
General Mills Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 7th. Investors of record on Friday, July 8th were given a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 7th. General Mills's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.87%.
Insider Activity at General Mills
In other General Mills news, insider Sean N. Walker sold 29,489 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,211,675.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 89,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,749,175. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other General Mills news, insider Dana M. Mcnabb sold 10,993 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.16, for a total transaction of $837,226.88. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 14,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,133,565.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Sean N. Walker sold 29,489 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,211,675.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 89,989 shares in the company, valued at $6,749,175. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 58,422 shares of company stock worth $4,397,556 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.53% of the company's stock.
