General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Price Down 3% Following Analyst Downgrade

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) shares traded down 3% during trading on Wednesday after Mizuho lowered their price target on the stock from $62.00 to $60.00. Mizuho currently has a neutral rating on the stock. General Mills traded as low as $58.19 and last traded at $58.62. 1,508,332 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 70% from the average session volume of 4,995,444 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.44.

GIS has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One investment 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.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In related news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,967,490. The trade was a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $32.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.37.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business had revenue of $4.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.17 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.12%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 52.17%.

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.