General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.60

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, September 24th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Friday, November 1st. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th.

General Mills has raised its dividend by an average of 4.5% per year over the last three years. General Mills has a dividend payout ratio of 50.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 50.6%.

General Mills Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of GIS stock traded down $0.42 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $73.77. The company had a trading volume of 2,717,795 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,984,315. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.63. The company has a market capitalization of $41.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a current ratio of 0.65. General Mills has a twelve month low of $60.33 and a twelve month high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.57% and a return on equity of 26.56%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GIS. Bank of America raised their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on General Mills from $70.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Piper Sandler upped their target price on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of General Mills in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.73.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other news, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total transaction of $173,514.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,700,411.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.