General Mills, Inc. (GIS) To Go Ex-Dividend on July 10th

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 26th, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 10th. This is a boost from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59.

General Mills has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.5% per year over the last three years. General Mills has a payout ratio of 47.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.3%.

General Mills Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE:GIS opened at $63.71 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.78, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.12. General Mills has a 1-year low of $60.33 and a 1-year high of $78.88. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $68.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.79. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. General Mills had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 26.56%. The firm had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.12 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total transaction of $50,104.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,397 shares in the company, valued at $1,227,706.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GIS shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $70.72.

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 salty snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables.