Wells Fargo & Company Lowers General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $67.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price target reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $70.00 to $67.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Mizuho upped their price objective on General Mills from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on General Mills from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $70.72.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE:GIS opened at $63.71 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $36.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.12. General Mills has a twelve month low of $60.33 and a twelve month high of $78.88. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $68.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.79. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.02. General Mills had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 26.84%. The business had revenue of $4.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.85 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.12 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.60 per share. This is an increase from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 54.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other news, insider Werner Lanette Shaffer sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.57, for a total value of $50,104.70. Following 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in General Mills by 16.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after buying an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter worth about $377,205,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in General Mills by 22.3% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in General Mills by 106.9% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,442,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $224,254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,778,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in General Mills by 257.7% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,061,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,954,000 after purchasing an additional 765,070 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.