Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Sector Perform Rating for General Mills (NYSE:GIS)

General Mills (NYSE:GIS)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reissued by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $70.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 10.05% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on GIS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of General Mills from $67.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Bank of America raised shares of General Mills from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $78.00 to $80.00 in a report on Friday, December 13th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on General Mills from $68.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, General Mills has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.56.

General Mills Stock Performance

Shares of General Mills stock opened at $63.61 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $68.11. General Mills has a 12 month low of $61.47 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.15, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.39.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 12.14% and a return on equity of 26.85%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 46,500 shares of the 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 owns 355,328 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,379,054.08. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of General Mills stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total value 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 65,230 shares of company stock worth $4,547,822. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Mills

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GIS. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 3.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 792,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,563,000 after buying an additional 27,847 shares during the period. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL lifted its stake in shares of General Mills by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Birmingham Capital Management Co. Inc. AL now owns 14,907 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,101,000 after purchasing an additional 1,267 shares during the period. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 28.6% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 45,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,323,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of General Mills by 0.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 438,014 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,025,000 after purchasing an additional 2,842 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in General Mills by 72.6% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 517,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,241,000 after purchasing an additional 217,774 shares during the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.