Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Price

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective lowered by Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on GIS. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of General Mills from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. TD Cowen upped their price target on General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $72.67.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GIS opened at $62.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $34.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $70.42 and a 200-day moving average of $68.78. General Mills has a one year low of $61.47 and a one year high of $75.90.

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

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 57.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills news, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total transaction of $173,514.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,184 shares in the company, valued at $2,700,411.92. This trade represents a 6.04 % 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, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $24,379,054.08. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 66,555 shares of company stock worth $4,657,676. Corporate insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in General Mills by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $999,000 after purchasing an additional 148 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 4.9% during the second quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 3,261 shares of the company’s stock worth $206,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 5.0% in the second quarter. Secure Asset Management LLC now owns 3,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $209,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. LCM Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of General Mills by 1.9% in the second quarter. LCM Capital Management Inc now owns 8,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $539,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 1.1% in the third quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 14,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,097,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. 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.