Back to top

Image: Bigstock

General Mills (GIS) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

In the latest trading session, General Mills (GIS - Free Report) closed at $90.26, marking a +0.77% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.17%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.66%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 6.09%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had gained 2.94% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.9% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.75% in that time.

General Mills will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, General Mills is projected to report earnings of $1.05 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 6.25%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.13 billion, up 4.94% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.23 per share and revenue of $20.2 billion, which would represent changes of +7.36% and +6.34%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for General Mills. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 0.08% higher within the past month. General Mills currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, General Mills currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.15. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.38, so we one might conclude that General Mills is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that GIS has a PEG ratio of 2.82 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Food - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.94 at yesterday's closing price.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 58, putting it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


General Mills, Inc. (GIS) - free report >>

Published in