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

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th.

General Mills has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.5% annually over the last three years. General Mills has a payout ratio of 51.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.65 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 51.6%.

General Mills Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of GIS stock traded up $0.10 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $62.88. 122,024 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,888,441. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.95, 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $70.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.73.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total value of $717,640.33. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 128,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,571,314.96. This represents a 6.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total value of $173,514.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 67,555 shares of company stock worth $4,721,336. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on GIS. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. 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 price objective on the stock. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.67.

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.