Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Sector Perform Rating for General Mills (NYSE:GIS)

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their sector perform rating on shares of General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $70.00 price target on the stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on GIS. Barclays raised their price target on General Mills from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.44.

General Mills Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:GIS opened at $63.26 on Thursday. General Mills has a one year low of $60.33 and a one year high of $77.63. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $66.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.68, a PEG ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.12 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. This is an increase from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.79%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.76%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,397 shares in the company, valued at $1,227,706.29. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after acquiring an additional 8,444,312 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at $377,205,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in General Mills by 22.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after buying an additional 2,488,341 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in General Mills by 106.9% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,442,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,254,000 after buying an additional 1,778,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in General Mills by 257.7% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,061,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,954,000 after acquiring an additional 765,070 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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.