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

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eighteen brokerages that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $68.82.

GIS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of General Mills in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Mizuho reduced their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded General Mills from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total value of $50,104.70. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,397 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,227,706.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $377,205,000. Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in General Mills by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,118,000 after acquiring an additional 2,488,341 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in General Mills by 106.9% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,442,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,254,000 after acquiring an additional 1,778,345 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in General Mills by 165.6% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,049,750 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,381,000 after acquiring an additional 654,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:GIS opened at $66.32 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $37.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. General Mills has a 12-month low of $60.33 and a 12-month high of $76.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $65.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.51.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.02. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.56% and a net margin of 12.57%. The firm had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.12 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that General Mills will post 4.49 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.62%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. This is an increase from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 55.68%.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.