Bank of America Issues Pessimistic Forecast for General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Price

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its target price cut by Bank of America from $63.00 to $61.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Bank of America‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 20.77% from the stock’s previous close.

GIS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $54.00 to $52.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, June 6th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $51.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on shares of General Mills and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.50.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS opened at $50.51 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $54.34 and a 200-day moving average of $58.36. The company has a market capitalization of $27.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.02. General Mills has a 1-year low of $50.19 and a 1-year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a current ratio of 0.67.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.02. General Mills had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 24.88%. The company had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,376,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,508 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 434.8% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,041,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,138,473,000 after purchasing an additional 15,480,835 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,907,000 after purchasing an additional 136,895 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,864,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $589,814,000 after purchasing an additional 741,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $514,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,483 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.