General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Lowered to $72.00 at Evercore ISI

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective decreased by Evercore ISI from $76.00 to $72.00 in a research note published on Friday, Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on GIS. Mizuho upped their target price on General Mills from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of General Mills from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and upped their price target for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their price objective on General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $70.44.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7 %

GIS opened at $63.26 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $68.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $66.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.68, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.12. General Mills has a fifty-two week low of $60.33 and a fifty-two week high of $77.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.56% and a net margin of 12.57%. General Mills’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that General Mills will post 4.52 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. 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. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.76%.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In related news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total value of $50,104.70. Following the transaction, the insider now 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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $377,205,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,488,341 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 106.9% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,442,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,254,000 after acquiring an additional 1,778,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of General Mills by 257.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,061,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,954,000 after acquiring an additional 765,070 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.