General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

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

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $60.33 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.25 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $65.47. General Mills has a one year low of $55.15 and a one year high of $75.90.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.98%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective 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. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their target price on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays decreased their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.53.

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.