In a report released today, Pablo Zuanic from Susquehanna reiterated a Buy rating on General Mills (NYSE: GIS), with a price target of $55. The company’s shares closed on Friday at $45.18.
Zuanic commented:
“The latest scanner data makes us constructive about profit margin trends at the quarters ahead, given increased price realization. We only have two months of the company’s August quarter (1Q19, out September), but price/mix gains have averaged 2-3% so far. Sales ($) trends have not changed much, but pricing is better (volumes worse). The last eight-week scanner data (through 7/29; fiscal 1Q19 proxy) shows $ sales ch % remained at -0.3% in the last eight weeks vs. -0.3% in fiscal 4Q18 (-0.7% in a three-point tougher comp; volume growth fell -2.8% in the last eight weeks vs. -0.4% in 4Q18 (-0.2% in FY18); pricing appears to have edged higher to +2.4% in the last eight weeks vs. +0.1% in 4Q18 (-0.5% in FY18). The latter, combined with the continued rollout of Blue Buffalo in FDM (Stop & Shop, recently; WMT we expect some time in FY19), should work as catalysts for Positive-rated GIS.”
According to TipRanks.com, Zuanic is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 6.5% and a 56.1% success rate. Zuanic covers the Consumer Goods sector, focusing on stocks such as Coca-Cola European Partners, Constellation Brands Inc, and Anheuser-Busch Inbev Sa.
Currently, the analyst consensus on General Mills is a Moderate Buy with an average price target of $49.89.
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The company has a one-year high of $60.69 and a one-year low of $41.01. Currently, General Mills has an average volume of 5.39M.
Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 66 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. Earlier this month, Heidi Miller, a Director at GIS sold 13,204 shares for a total of $604,215.
TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.
General Mills, Inc. engages in the manufacture and marketing of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores. It operates through the following segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; and Asia & Latin America; and Pet.
