General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Stock Price Down 2.6% – Should You Sell?

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) shares traded down 2.6% during trading on Tuesday. The company traded as low as $31.79 and last traded at $31.8370. Approximately 7,971,560 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 17% from the average daily volume of 9,579,700 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GIS has been the topic of a number of research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and set a $34.00 price target (up from $33.00) on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $35.00 price objective on General Mills in a research report on Thursday, September 10th. UBS Group reissued a “sell” rating on shares of General Mills in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of General Mills in a research report on Tuesday, September 29th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of General Mills in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and six have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $36.59.

General Mills Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $17.02 billion, a PE ratio of -19.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.70 and a 200 day moving average of $35.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 23rd. The company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $4.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.35 billion. General Mills had a positive return on equity of 21.86% and a negative net margin of 4.89%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that General Mills, Inc. will post 3.08 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.7%. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently -146.99%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On General Mills

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in General Mills during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,181,608,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in General Mills by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,672,503 shares of the company’s stock valued at $248,344,000 after purchasing an additional 143,265 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in General Mills by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,200,299 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,335,000 after purchasing an additional 58,608 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of General Mills by 41.0% in the 2nd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 4,140,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $144,099,000 after purchasing an additional 1,203,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of General Mills in the second quarter worth $129,298,000. Institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

About General Mills

General Mills, Inc is a global food company that manufactures and markets branded consumer foods. Its products include cereal, snack bars, refrigerated dough, baking mixes, yogurt, soup, meals, frozen foods, and pet food, serving retail, foodservice, and pet channels.

The company’s portfolio includes well-known brands such as Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Nature Valley, Yoplait, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Progresso, Totino’s, Annie’s, and Blue Buffalo. General Mills sells its products primarily in the United States and also serves consumers in international markets across multiple regions.

General Mills traces its history to the Minneapolis Milling Company, established in 1856, and adopted the General Mills name following a 1928 combination of several milling businesses.