General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.04, Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.99 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 27.55% and a net margin of 13.08%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share.

General Mills Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:GIS opened at $60.33 on Wednesday. General Mills has a 1 year low of $55.15 and a 1 year high of $75.90. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $60.08 and its 200 day moving average is $65.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market cap of $33.25 billion, a PE ratio of 13.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06.

General Mills Dividend Announcement

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 issued 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 3.98%. General Mills’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.17%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.00, for a total transaction of $739,635.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 353,346 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. This trade represents a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on GIS. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on General Mills from $84.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Citigroup dropped their price target on General Mills from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on General Mills from $72.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Bank of America dropped their price target on General Mills from $78.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on General Mills from $68.00 to $65.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.53.

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.