General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in a research note released on Monday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued an underweight rating and a $53.00 price target on the stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Down 0.7 %

GIS opened at $58.21 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $32.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.65, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.06. General Mills has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.12%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total value of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in General Mills by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the last quarter. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new position in General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at about $547,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in General Mills by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 72,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,652,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in General Mills by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,749,000 after purchasing an additional 5,853 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.