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

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

GIS has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Performance

GIS stock opened at $59.05 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.89. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. General Mills has a 12-month low of $55.15 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.55 billion, a PE ratio of 12.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The firm had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.36 earnings per share 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. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.06%. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 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 directly 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in General Mills by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,630,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,376,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,868,508 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $923,907,000 after purchasing an additional 136,895 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 34.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,903,000 after buying an additional 2,341,137 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in General Mills by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $514,101,000 after buying an additional 1,253,483 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.