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

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a dividend of 0.60 per share on Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th.

General Mills has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.5% annually over the last three years. General Mills has a dividend payout ratio of 51.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect General Mills to earn $4.65 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 51.6%.

General Mills Trading Up 0.2 %

General Mills stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $62.88. The stock had a trading volume of 122,024 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,888,441. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.11. General Mills has a 12 month low of $61.47 and a 12 month high of $75.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 18th. The company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.01. General Mills had a return on equity of 26.85% and a net margin of 12.14%. The firm had revenue of $4.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that General Mills will post 4.51 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GIS shares. Bank of America raised their target price on General Mills from $68.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on General Mills in a report on Monday, August 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $76.00 price objective on the stock. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of General Mills from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of General Mills from $77.00 to $70.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of General Mills from $63.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Mills

In other General Mills news, Director Maria Sastre sold 1,000 shares of the company’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 directly owns 23,013 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,465,007.58. This represents a 4.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Jonathon Nudi sold 9,647 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.39, for a total transaction of $717,640.33. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 128,664 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,571,314.96. The trade was a 6.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 67,555 shares of company stock worth $4,721,336 over the last ninety days. 0.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.