General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Price Target Cut to $56.00 by Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) had its price target decreased by Stifel Nicolaus from $65.00 to $56.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $53.00 price objective on shares of General Mills and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.73.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE GIS opened at $50.51 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $27.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.32, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a 50 day moving average of $54.34 and a 200-day moving average of $58.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. General Mills has a 1-year low of $50.19 and a 1-year high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.60 billion. General Mills had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 24.88%. The company’s revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. This is a positive change from General Mills’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.83%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. General Mills’s payout ratio is presently 52.75%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 834,417 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,211,000 after purchasing an additional 85,612 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 484,550 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,900,000 after purchasing an additional 46,536 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 34.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 9,123,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,903,000 after purchasing an additional 2,341,137 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 7.1% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 72,949 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,652,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of General Mills by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,749,000 after purchasing an additional 5,853 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.