General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) Announces $0.60 Quarterly Dividend

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 28th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%.

General Mills has raised its dividend by an average of 5.4% per year over the last three years. General Mills has a payout ratio of 49.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.3%.

General Mills Price Performance

Shares of GIS stock opened at $59.84 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $63.23 and its 200 day moving average is $67.42. General Mills has a 1-year low of $57.94 and a 1-year high of $75.90. 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 $32.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01, a PEG ratio of 3.70 and a beta of 0.11.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 18th. The company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.22 by $0.18. General Mills had a net margin of 13.08% and a return on equity of 27.55%. The business had revenue of $5.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.25 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that General Mills will post 4.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on GIS shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on General Mills from $83.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup lowered their price target on General Mills from $71.00 to $67.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of General Mills from $78.00 to $72.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $74.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $70.94.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Paul Joseph Gallagher sold 1,041 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.50, for a total value of $67,144.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,117 shares in the company, valued at $2,716,546.50. The trade was a 2.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $63,660.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,013 shares in the company, 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. 0.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.