General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Given Sector Perform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their sector perform rating on shares of General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $70.00 target price on the stock.

GIS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. HSBC raised their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded General Mills from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and lifted their price target for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on General Mills from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.72.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GIS opened at $63.71 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.79. General Mills has a twelve month low of $60.33 and a twelve month high of $78.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.61, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.84% and a net margin of 12.66%. General Mills’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.12 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is a positive change from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.13%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total transaction of $50,104.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,227,706.29. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in General Mills by 22.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in General Mills by 0.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,242,274 shares of the company’s stock worth $527,423,000 after purchasing an additional 23,400 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,074,884 shares of the company’s stock valued at $460,858,000 after buying an additional 501,717 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of General Mills during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $377,205,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.