General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Cut to $70.00 by Analysts at Bank of America

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price objective cut by Bank of America from $78.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

GIS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of General Mills in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.88.

General Mills Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of GIS stock opened at $57.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $31.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.60, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.10. General Mills has a 52 week low of $55.15 and a 52 week high of $75.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $66.66.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.25 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that General Mills will post 4.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.60 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.14%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 52.17%.

Insider Activity at General Mills

In related news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total transaction of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 42,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,716,546.50. This represents a 2.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 27.9% in the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 15,121 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,117,000 after buying an additional 3,303 shares during the last quarter. Calton & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the third quarter worth $240,000. Eastern Bank raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 434.2% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 24,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,825,000 after buying an additional 20,090 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the third quarter worth $746,000. Finally, Tempus Wealth Planning LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Mills by 8.3% in the third quarter. Tempus Wealth Planning LLC now owns 3,720 shares of the company’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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.