Wells Fargo & Company Cuts General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $70.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $70.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on GIS. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday, August 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $76.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.67.

General Mills Stock Down 2.3 %

GIS stock opened at $63.21 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. General Mills has a 12 month low of $61.47 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $70.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.84.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total transaction of $717,640.33. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 128,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,571,314.96. This trade represents a 6.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the firm’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,700,411.92. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 66,555 shares of company stock valued at $4,657,676 in the last quarter. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 16.3% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,219,113,000 after purchasing an additional 8,444,312 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,474,177,000 after purchasing an additional 2,867,678 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,488,341 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,629,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $356,151,000 after purchasing an additional 323,090 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,413,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $342,478,000 after purchasing an additional 148,235 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by 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.