General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04, Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.17 EPS.

General Mills Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:GIS opened at $60.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $60.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.47.

General Mills Announces Dividend

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 paid 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 3.98%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.17%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on GIS. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays lowered their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered their price objective on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.53.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.