General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Research Coverage Started at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in a research report released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an underweight rating and a $53.00 price objective on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GIS. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, General Mills has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $65.69.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS opened at $59.05 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $59.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.89. General Mills has a twelve month low of $55.15 and a twelve month high of $75.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a market capitalization of $32.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.84, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. General Mills’s revenue was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. Equities analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.06%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 52.75%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This trade represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GIS. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 6.9% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 45,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,325,000 after purchasing an additional 2,907 shares during the period. Nwam LLC bought a new stake in General Mills during the 3rd quarter valued at $240,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in General Mills by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 261,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,309,000 after buying an additional 22,337 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in General Mills by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $990,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pitcairn Co. increased its position in shares of General Mills by 16.1% in the third quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 13,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,877 shares during the period. 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.