
General Mills (GIS) Stock Higher, Price Target Raised at Deutsche Bank
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of General Mills (GIS) - Get Report are advancing 5.36% to $71.50 on high volume in late-afternoon trading as the company's price target was raised to $67 from $63 with a "hold" rating earlier today at Deutsche Bank.
So far today., 8.23 million shares have traded vs. the average of 2.88 million shares.
This follows the Minneapolis-based food company's announcement of better-than-expected Q4 FY16 and FY2016 results on Wednesday.
General Mills has been fighting to stay relevant in the U.S. food market as consumers become more health-conscious, reports investornetwork.com. Since revamping their cereal line to provide healthier options, the fourth quarter results show that U.S. retail sales of the company's cereal have risen 3%.
The company now plans to make similar changes to its slow-performing U.S. yogurt brands - Yoplait and Liberté - by shifting toward Greek yogurt products, which rose from 1% of retail sales in 2007 to over 35% in 2015, reports marketwatch.com.
"I think the recipe for yogurt is very similar to what the recipe has been for cereal to get back to growth, which is improved renovation and innovation," said Jeffrey Harmening, chief operating officer for U.S. retail at General Mills."
Additionally, investors are encouraged by the company's decision to raise its cost savings projection to $600 million with plans to cut jobs and close factories, and to boost its quarterly dividend by 4%.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author. TheStreet Ratings has this to say about the recommendation:
We rate GENERAL MILLS INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, notable return on equity, expanding profit margins, good cash flow from operations and growth in earnings per share. We feel its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.
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