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General Mills (GIS) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, General Mills (GIS - Free Report) closed at $48.82, marking a +1.18% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.21%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.17%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.27%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had lost 5.96% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 2.51% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.26% in that time.

GIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.76, down 3.8% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.22 billion, up 8.57% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.14 per share and revenue of $16.93 billion. These totals would mark changes of +0.96% and +7.53%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for GIS. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.04% higher within the past month. GIS currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, GIS is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.36. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.51.

Also, we should mention that GIS has a PEG ratio of 2.19. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. GIS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.31 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 107, putting it in the top 42% 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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