General Mills (GIS) Stock Moves -0.02%: What You Should Know

General Mills (GIS) closed the most recent trading day at $41.79, moving -0.02% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.53%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.36%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.94%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had gained 9.65% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector lost 3.42%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.47%.

GIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 20, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.69, down 12.66% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.18 billion, up 7.7% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.08 per share and revenue of $16.95 billion. These totals would mark changes of -0.96% and +7.66%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for GIS. 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. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.29% higher. GIS is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, GIS is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 13.58. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.28, so we one might conclude that GIS is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, GIS's PEG ratio is currently 1.87. 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. GIS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.95 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 177, which puts it in the bottom 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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