General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the seventeen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have assigned a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $71.94.

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a "sector perform" rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GIS traded up $0.10 on Thursday, reaching $64.01. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,138,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,956,828. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $66.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.14. General Mills has a 52-week low of $61.47 and a 52-week high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $35.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.24, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.10.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.25 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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 issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. General Mills's payout ratio is currently 57.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value 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 trade represents a 4.16 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total value of $173,514.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,184 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 67,555 shares of company stock worth $4,721,336 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Values First Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in General Mills during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. First Foundation Advisors grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 400.0% during the second quarter. First Foundation Advisors now owns 500 shares of the company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 61.5% during the third quarter. Planning Capital Management Corp now owns 507 shares of the company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of General Mills by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 606 shares of the company's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.