General Mills (NYSE:GIS) PT Raised to $75.00 at Bank of America

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective hoisted by Bank of America from $68.00 to $75.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $67.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised General Mills from an underperform rating to a market perform rating and raised their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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, June 27th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on General Mills from $71.00 to $68.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Argus reissued a hold rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $70.07.

General Mills Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE GIS opened at $73.71 on Thursday. General Mills has a fifty-two week low of $60.33 and a fifty-two week high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.20. The stock has a market cap of $41.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.10.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 26th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.85 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.56% and a net margin of 12.57%. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.12 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 10th. 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 3.26%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 55.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in General Mills by 16.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in General Mills during the fourth quarter valued at $377,205,000. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position 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 valued at $955,118,000 after purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in General Mills by 100.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $299,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,368,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. lifted its position in General Mills by 6,140.4% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 945,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,807,000 after purchasing an additional 930,271 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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 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.