Stifel Nicolaus Cuts General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $72.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its target price reduced by Stifel Nicolaus from $78.00 to $72.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Bank of America raised shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.94.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE:GIS opened at $60.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $33.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.11. General Mills has a 1 year low of $57.94 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.25 earnings per share. General Mills’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other General Mills news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value of $63,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. The trade was a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in General Mills by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 237,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,565,000 after buying an additional 43,086 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the fourth quarter valued at about $547,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in shares of General Mills by 129.9% in the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 184,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,649,000 after purchasing an additional 104,436 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in General Mills by 64.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,058,414 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.