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General Mills (GIS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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General Mills (GIS - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $51.33, moving +0.1% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.61%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.71%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.53%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had gained 0.81% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 2.27% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.77% in that time.

GIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect GIS to post earnings of $0.76 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 3.8%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.23 billion, up 8.75% from the prior-year quarter.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for GIS should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.06% higher. GIS is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, GIS currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.36. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.62, so we one might conclude that GIS is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that GIS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.19. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Food - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.35 at yesterday's closing price.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 169, putting it in the bottom 34% 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.

To follow GIS in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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