General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Given New $64.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective cut by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $68.00 to $64.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target points to a potential upside of 3.56% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on GIS. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on General Mills from $82.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup dropped their target price on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $71.31.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GIS traded up $0.30 on Tuesday, hitting $61.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 534,759 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,079,281. General Mills has a 1 year low of $61.34 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The company has a market capitalization of $34.07 billion, a PE ratio of 14.71, a PEG ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $65.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $67.88.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. General Mills’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.25 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 8,083 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.28, for a total transaction of $576,156.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 14,813 shares in the company, valued at $1,055,870.64. The trade was a 35.30 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,624 shares of company stock valued at $3,897,326. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its stake in shares of General Mills by 41.2% in the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 24,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,530,000 after buying an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. First City Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in General Mills by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. First City Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,837 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 347 shares during the last quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 18,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,180,000 after purchasing an additional 770 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.