General Mills, Inc. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.60 (NYSE:GIS)

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th.

General Mills has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.5% annually over the last three years. General Mills has a dividend payout ratio of 51.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.65 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 51.6%.

General Mills Price Performance

GIS traded down $0.10 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $62.78. 2,078,580 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,901,822. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. General Mills has a 12-month low of $61.47 and a 12-month high of $75.90. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $70.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.78. The company has a market cap of $34.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.95, a PEG ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. The company had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.80 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.09 earnings per share. General Mills’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GIS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America upped their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.67.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other General Mills news, CAO Mark A. Pallot sold 8,083 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.28, for a total value of $576,156.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 14,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,055,870.64. This trade represents a 35.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total value of $173,514.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,700,411.92. This trade represents a 6.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 66,555 shares of company stock worth $4,657,676 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

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.