General Mills (NYSE:GIS) Sets New 12-Month Low – What’s Next?

General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $33.46 and last traded at $33.4450, with a volume of 5276301 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $34.68.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GIS shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on General Mills from $42.00 to $36.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on General Mills from $47.00 to $44.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. UBS Group decreased their target price on General Mills from $40.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on General Mills from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on General Mills from $41.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and six have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $42.61.

General Mills Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company has a market cap of $17.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.21 and a beta of -0.02. The company has a fifty day moving average of $37.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.07.

General Mills (NYSE:GIS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, March 18th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.73 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $4.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.53 billion. General Mills had a return on equity of 19.19% and a net margin of 12.05%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.12 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that General Mills, Inc. will post 3.44 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GIS. Norges Bank acquired a new position in General Mills during the 4th quarter worth about $361,552,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of General Mills by 2,970.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,466,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $347,201,000 after acquiring an additional 7,223,487 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of General Mills by 366.1% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 5,117,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,954,000 after acquiring an additional 4,019,319 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of General Mills in the 2nd quarter worth about $84,862,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of General Mills by 61.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,141,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,573,444 shares in the last quarter. 75.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.