General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Price Down 3% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) traded down 3% during trading on Wednesday after Mizuho lowered their price target on the stock from $62.00 to $60.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. General Mills traded as low as $58.19 and last traded at $58.62. 1,508,332 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 4,995,444 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.44.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. TD Cowen cut 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, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $66.53.

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Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC raised its holdings in General Mills by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company's stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in General Mills by 105.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company's stock valued at $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new position in General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at about $547,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in General Mills by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 72,949 shares of the company's stock valued at $4,652,000 after acquiring an additional 4,839 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in General Mills by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43,114 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,749,000 after acquiring an additional 5,853 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

General Mills Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $32.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.78, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The business's 50-day moving average is $60.00 and its 200-day moving average is $65.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS - Get Free Report) 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 last year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.08%. General Mills's dividend payout ratio is currently 52.75%.

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.