Bank of America Cuts General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $70.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price target decreased by Bank of America from $78.00 to $70.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on GIS. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.88.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS stock opened at $61.02 on Wednesday. General Mills has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The firm has a market cap of $33.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.26, a PEG ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.56.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The company had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.25 earnings per share. General Mills’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.93%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of GIS. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Values First Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in General Mills in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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.