Wells Fargo & Company Lowers General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target to $70.00

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its target price cut by Wells Fargo & Company from $77.00 to $70.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on GIS. Barclays increased their price target on shares of General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. 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. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on shares of General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.67.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $62.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $34.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.97, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. General Mills has a 12 month low of $61.47 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $70.42 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.78.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.80 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. General Mills’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Pankaj Mn Sharma sold 2,325 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.63, for a total value of $173,514.75. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,184 shares in the company, valued at $2,700,411.92. This represents a 6.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.61, for a total transaction of $3,190,365.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 66,555 shares of company stock valued at $4,657,676. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in General Mills by 16.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,298,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,219,113,000 after buying an additional 8,444,312 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,502,737 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,474,177,000 after acquiring an additional 2,867,678 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of General Mills by 22.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,650,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $955,118,000 after acquiring an additional 2,488,341 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in General Mills by 100.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,728,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $299,138,000 after acquiring an additional 2,368,563 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in General Mills by 6,140.4% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 945,421 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,807,000 after purchasing an additional 930,271 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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.