General Mills Inc. Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (GIS)

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- General Mills (NYSE:GIS) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, good cash flow from operations, increase in net income, expanding profit margins and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 6.5%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 11.9%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 167.24% to $744.80 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, GENERAL MILLS INC has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 23.47%.
• The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Food Products industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 1.6% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $320.20 million to $325.40 million.
• 40.30% is the gross profit margin for GENERAL MILLS INC which we consider to be strong. Regardless of GIS's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 8.00% trails the industry average.
• GENERAL MILLS INC's earnings per share improvement from the most recent quarter was slightly positive. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, GENERAL MILLS INC reported lower earnings of $2.35 versus $2.69 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.66 versus $2.35).

General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. The company has a P/E ratio of 16.4, above the average food & beverage industry P/E ratio of 16.3 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. General Mills has a market cap of $24.91 billion and is part of the consumer goods sector and food & beverage industry. Shares are down 4.8% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

You can view the full General Mills Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

For more information on General Mills Inc. click any of the following:

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• General Mills Inc. Ratio Comparison

• General Mills Inc. Growth Rates

• General Mills Inc. Balance Sheet

• General Mills Inc. Cash Flow

• General Mills Inc. Income Statement