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

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $55.8235.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group lowered their target price on General Mills from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of General Mills from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of General Mills from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Finally, HSBC lowered their price target on shares of General Mills from $59.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.04, for a total transaction of $200,160.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 66,593 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,332,313.72. This represents a 5.67% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 69,346,225 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,592,828,000 after acquiring an additional 581,045 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in General Mills by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,717,972 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,700,060,000 after purchasing an additional 145,701 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 19,307,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,000,299,000 after purchasing an additional 265,870 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,173,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $786,954,000 after purchasing an additional 170,587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 9,956,665 shares of the company’s stock worth $494,548,000 after purchasing an additional 1,368,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Up 0.5%

GIS opened at $46.17 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.63 billion, a PE ratio of 8.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of -0.07. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.28. General Mills has a 52 week low of $45.60 and a 52 week high of $67.35.

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

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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

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.