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General Mills (GIS) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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General Mills (GIS - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $37.38, moving -1.94% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.91%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 2.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.26%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had lost 15.72% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector lost 1.46%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.51%.

GIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be December 19, 2018. On that day, GIS is projected to report earnings of $0.81 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 1.22%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.51 billion, up 7.42% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.07 per share and revenue of $17.08 billion, which would represent changes of -1.29% and +8.49%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for GIS should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.11% lower within the past month. GIS is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note GIS's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.42. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.59.

Meanwhile, GIS's PEG ratio is currently 1.6. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Food - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.17 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 199, putting it in the bottom 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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