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

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nineteen ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $55.8235.

GIS has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of General Mills in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on General Mills from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Bernstein Bank decreased their price target on General Mills from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Wall Street Zen raised General Mills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, HSBC cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 18th.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In related news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total value of $200,160.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 66,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GIS. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 15,480,835 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter valued at $417,508,000. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills in the second quarter worth $84,862,000. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the first quarter worth $92,717,000. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its position in General Mills by 82.8% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 3,415,818 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,226,000 after purchasing an additional 1,546,993 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

General Mills Trading Up 0.5%

GIS opened at $46.17 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market cap of $24.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.73, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of -0.07. General Mills has a 12 month low of $45.60 and a 12 month high of $67.35. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $47.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $50.14.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 17th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 15.24% and a return on equity of 23.46%. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.52 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.07 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.12%.

About General Mills

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.