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

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $59.73.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GIS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of General Mills from $65.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded General Mills from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in General Mills by 5.6% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 174,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,043,000 after purchasing an additional 9,230 shares during the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of General Mills by 48.1% during the 2nd quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 9,967 shares of the company’s stock valued at $516,000 after buying an additional 3,237 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 192.3% during the 2nd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 333,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,269,000 after acquiring an additional 219,286 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in General Mills by 2.7% in the second quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,885 shares of the company’s stock worth $409,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Interchange Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in General Mills in the second quarter valued at $48,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS stock opened at $49.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market cap of $26.58 billion and a PE ratio of 11.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $52.33 and a 200-day moving average of $56.33. General Mills has a 12-month low of $48.59 and a 12-month high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 24.88% and a net margin of 11.78%. The business had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is currently 59.51%.

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.