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 Ratings Changes
A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GIS shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $66.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 30th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $56.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 1st. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $82.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 30th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $66.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $72.73.
General Mills Stock Performance
NYSE:GIS opened at $76.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.63. The company has a fifty day moving average of $72.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.35. General Mills has a fifty-two week low of $56.67 and a fifty-two week high of $78.24.
General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 29th. The company reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $4.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.81 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 14.25% and a return on equity of 23.74%. General Mills's quarterly revenue was up 8.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
General Mills Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 8th were paid a $0.54 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 7th. General Mills's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.87%.
Insider Transactions at General Mills
In related news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 2,255 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.66, for a total value of $168,358.30. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 17,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,275,715.42. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other General Mills news, insider Sean N. Walker sold 29,489 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $2,211,675.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 89,989 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,749,175. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 2,255 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.66, for a total value of $168,358.30. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 17,087 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,275,715.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 58,422 shares of company stock worth $4,397,556. Insiders own 0.53% of the company's stock.
