General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Cut to $65.00 by Analysts at Barclays

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price target trimmed by Barclays from $68.00 to $65.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a report on Monday. Mizuho lowered their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.53.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GIS opened at $60.33 on Tuesday. General Mills has a twelve month low of $55.15 and a twelve month high of $75.90. 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 company has a market capitalization of $33.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $60.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $65.47.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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 is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.17%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GIS. RFG Advisory LLC raised its position in General Mills by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 6,668 shares of the company’s stock valued at $425,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. raised its position in General Mills by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 23,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,471,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Private Wealth Management LLC raised its position in General Mills by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its position in General Mills by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC raised its position in General Mills by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 3,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.