General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on the stock from $83.00 to $82.00. The stock had previously closed at $65.93, but opened at $63.10. General Mills shares last traded at $64.41, with a volume of 2,702,632 shares.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. TD Cowen upped their target price on General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.56.

Insider Activity

In other General Mills news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 8,083 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.28, for a total transaction of $576,156.24. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,055,870.64. This trade represents a 35.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total transaction of $173,514.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. The trade was a 6.04 % 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 three months. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL boosted its stake in General Mills by 9.3% in the third quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 14,907 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,267 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. increased its position in General Mills by 28.6% in the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 45,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,323,000 after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 0.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 438,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,000 after buying an additional 2,842 shares during the period. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 72.6% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 517,820 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,241,000 after acquiring an additional 217,774 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in General Mills by 29.8% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 53,335 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,939,000 after acquiring an additional 12,248 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Down 3.1 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $35.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $66.76 and a 200-day moving average of $68.17.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. General Mills’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

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

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.