General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Cut to $64.00 by Analysts at TD Cowen

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective lowered by TD Cowen from $75.00 to $64.00 in a research note published on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. TD Cowen currently has a hold rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on GIS. Bank of America upgraded shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $78.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler raised their target price on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.94.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $64.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $35.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $66.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.14. General Mills has a 1-year low of $61.47 and a 1-year high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is currently 57.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $63,660.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,013 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 65,230 shares of company stock worth $4,547,822. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in General Mills by 6.1% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,151,000 after buying an additional 323,090 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of General Mills by 2.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,478,000 after acquiring an additional 148,235 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of General Mills by 100.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,368,563 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,823,254 shares of the company’s stock valued at $282,347,000 after acquiring an additional 263,188 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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.