General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $73.56.

A number of equities analysts have commented on GIS shares. Bank of America raised General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th.

General Mills Stock Performance

General Mills stock opened at $63.91 on Thursday. General Mills has a 52-week low of $61.47 and a 52-week high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $66.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $68.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.10.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.25 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.76%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 57.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $717,640.33. Following the sale, the insider now owns 128,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,571,314.96. This trade represents a 6.97 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total value of $3,190,365.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 67,555 shares of company stock worth $4,721,336 over the last ninety days. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in General Mills by 1.1% in the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $999,000 after buying an additional 148 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in General Mills by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,261 shares of the company’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the period. Secure Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in General Mills by 5.0% during the 2nd quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 3,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc boosted its position in General Mills by 1.9% during the second quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 8,521 shares of the company’s stock worth $539,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.1% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 14,854 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,097,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. 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 savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.