Mizuho Cuts General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $65.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price target trimmed by Mizuho from $72.00 to $65.00 in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of General Mills in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America raised shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $78.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $71.13.

General Mills Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of GIS opened at $58.46 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.71, a PEG ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.10. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $61.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.05. General Mills has a twelve month low of $57.85 and a twelve month high of $75.90.

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

General Mills Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a $0.60 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.11%. General Mills’s payout ratio is 52.17%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Mills news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,716,546.50. This trade represents a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $63,660.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Mills

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in General Mills by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 237,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,565,000 after purchasing an additional 43,086 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 105.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock worth $421,552,000 after acquiring an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. J2 Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter worth approximately $547,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 129.9% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 184,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,649,000 after acquiring an additional 104,436 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of General Mills by 64.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,803,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $497,054,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058,414 shares during the period. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About General Mills

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.