General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Now Covered by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Investment analysts at Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of General Mills (NYSE:GIS) in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set an “underweight” rating and a $53.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 8.23% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on General Mills from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on General Mills from $75.00 to $64.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on General Mills from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of General Mills in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.69.

General Mills Stock Down 0.7 %

General Mills stock opened at $57.75 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $59.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market cap of $31.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.06. General Mills has a twelve month low of $55.15 and a twelve month high of $75.90.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 19th. The company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $4.84 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.17 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that General Mills will post 4.36 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Mills news, CEO Jeffrey L. Harmening sold 11,379 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 353,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,967,490. This represents a 3.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in General Mills by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Institutional Advisory LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of General Mills by 105.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,708,223 shares of the company’s stock valued at $421,552,000 after purchasing an additional 2,926,232 shares during the period. J2 Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of General Mills during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $547,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its holdings in General Mills by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 72,949 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,652,000 after buying an additional 4,839 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in General Mills by 15.7% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 43,114 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,749,000 after buying an additional 5,853 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.71% of the company’s stock.

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.