General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Time to Sell?

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $56.92 and last traded at $56.01, with a volume of 45493 shares. The stock had previously closed at $58.84.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 10th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of General Mills from $78.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.13.

General Mills Trading Down 2.2 %

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 firm has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.10. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $61.47 and its 200-day moving average is $66.81.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.60 per share. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is 52.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 period. State Street Corp raised its stake in General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867,678 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in General Mills by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,488,451 shares of the company’s stock valued at $923,907,000 after acquiring an additional 136,895 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in General Mills by 34.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $581,903,000 after acquiring an additional 2,341,137 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in General Mills by 18.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,061,793 shares of the company’s stock valued at $514,101,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253,483 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.