General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $40.0556.

Several research firms recently issued reports on GIS. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $47.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of General Mills in a research report on Monday, April 13th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $45.00 to $37.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of General Mills from $41.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th.

Trending Headlines about General Mills

Here are the key news stories impacting General Mills this week:

• Negative Sentiment: JPMorgan cut General Mills’ price target to $31 and kept an underweight rating, signaling concern that the stock still has downside from current levels.
• Negative Sentiment: UBS also lowered its target to $30 and maintained a sell rating, adding to the negative analyst sentiment around the shares.
• Negative Sentiment: Bernstein turned more cautious on packaged food names, citing long-term headwinds from GLP-1 drug adoption, changing consumer habits, and regulatory pressure that could weigh on General Mills’ growth and margins. Bernstein cuts food giants as GLP-1s, health trends threaten growth outlooks
• Neutral Sentiment: General Mills announced it will sell its Häagen-Dazs shop business in mainland China to a Ningji-led investor group while retaining retail and foodservice exposure, a portfolio reshaping move aimed at focusing on more profitable growth areas. General Mills Resets China Presence With Häagen-Dazs Shop Divestment And License
• Neutral Sentiment: The China divestiture may improve strategic focus, but it also highlights pressure on foreign consumer brands in that market and uncertainty around international growth.

Insider Transactions at General Mills

In other General Mills news, insider Jacqueline Williams-Roll sold 10,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total transaction of $342,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 86,002 shares in the company, valued at $2,947,288.54. This trade represents a 10.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ricardo Fernandez sold 7,995 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.50, for a total transaction of $275,827.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 62,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,148,763.50. This represents a 11.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GIS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $361,552,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 2,970.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,466,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $347,201,000 after purchasing an additional 7,223,487 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 366.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,117,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,954,000 after purchasing an additional 4,019,319 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Mills in the second quarter valued at approximately $84,862,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of General Mills by 61.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,141,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,589,000 after purchasing an additional 1,573,444 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

General Mills Stock Performance

NYSE:GIS opened at $32.15 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $34.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $17.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.86 and a beta of -0.03. General Mills has a twelve month low of $31.85 and a twelve month high of $55.19.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.09). General Mills had a return on equity of 19.19% and a net margin of 12.05%.The business had revenue of $4.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills will post 3.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Mills Company Profile

General Mills, Inc (NYSE: GIS) is a multinational consumer foods company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of branded food products. Its product categories include ready-to-eat and hot cereals, baking mixes and ingredients, snacks and bars, refrigerated and frozen doughs, yogurt and other dairy products, and a variety of shelf-stable meals and meal components. The company’s portfolio features widely recognized consumer brands across grocery store, mass channel and foodservice outlets.

Founded in the early 20th century and incorporated under its current name in 1928, General Mills has grown through both internal brand development and strategic expansion to become a global food company.