General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Cut to $68.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its target price trimmed by Bank of America from $70.00 to $68.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a sector perform rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded General Mills from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and increased their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a market perform 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 MarketBeat, General Mills 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $36.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.61, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $66.79. General Mills has a 52-week low of $60.33 and a 52-week high of $78.88.

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

General Mills Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. General Mills’s payout ratio is 54.13%.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In related news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total transaction of $50,104.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,227,706.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in General Mills by 16.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after buying an additional 8,444,312 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,488,341 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in General Mills by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,242,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $527,423,000 after purchasing an additional 23,400 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,074,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $460,858,000 after purchasing an additional 501,717 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of General Mills during the fourth quarter valued at $377,205,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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