Our top pick for
Beginners
Finder is committed to editorial independence. While we receive compensation when you click links to partners, they do not influence our opinions or reviews. Learn how we make money.
How to buy General Mills stock | $62.19
Own General Mills stock in just a few minutes.
General Mills, Inc is a packaged foods business based in the US. General Mills shares (GIS) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. General Mills employs 35,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$17.6 billion.
How to buy shares in General Mills
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for General Mills Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: GIS. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until General Mills reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$62.19, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of General Mills, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of General Mills. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- General Mills shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is General Mills stock a buy or sell?
- General Mills performance over time
- Can I short General Mills shares?
- Is General Mills suitable for ethical investing?
- Are General Mills shares over-valued?
- General Mills's financials
- How volatile are General Mills shares?
- Does General Mills pay a dividend?
- Have General Mills shares ever split?
- Other common questions
How has coronavirus impacted General Mills's share price?
Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, General Mills's share price has had significant positive movement.
Its last market close was USD$62.19, which is 13.30% up on its pre-crash value of USD$53.92 and 33.48% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$46.59.
If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of General Mills shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$892.17 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$1,173.53.
General Mills share price
Use our graph to track the performance of GIS stocks over time.General Mills shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-09-14.
| Latest market close | USD$62.19 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | USD$46.88 - USD$65.69 |
| 50-day moving average | USD$63.3653 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$60.1029 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$64.57 |
| PE ratio | 16.4298 |
| Dividend yield | USD$1.96 (3.35%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$3.56 |
Compare trading platforms
Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of types of investments among top trading platforms.The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy General Mills stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
General Mills price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the last close of $62.19
| 1 week (2020-09-07) | N/A |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2020-08-14) | N/A |
| 3 months (2020-06-18) | 0.70% |
| 6 months (2020-03-14) | N/A |
| 1 year (2019-09-14) | N/A |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2018-09-14) | N/A |
| 3 years (2017-09-14) | N/A |
| 5 years (2015-09-14) | N/A |
Is General Mills under- or over-valued?
Valuing General Mills stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of General Mills's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
General Mills's P/E ratio
General Mills's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 16x. In other words, General Mills shares trade at around 16x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
General Mills's PEG ratio
General Mills's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 4.274. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into General Mills's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
General Mills's EBITDA
General Mills's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$3.7 billion.
The EBITDA is a measure of a General Mills's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
General Mills financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$17.6 billion |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 17.69% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$6.2 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | 6.4% |
| Return on equity TTM | 26.3% |
| Profit margin | 12.37% |
| Book value | $13.215 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$35.8 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting General Mills shares
There are currently 16.4 million General Mills shares held short by investors – that's known as General Mills's "short interest". This figure is 0.6% up from 16.3 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting General Mills shares can be evaluated.
General Mills's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
General Mills's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of General Mills shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of General Mills shares traded daily (recently around 2.4 million). General Mills's SIR currently stands at 6.75. In other words for every 100,000 General Mills shares traded daily on the market, roughly 6750 shares are currently held short.
However General Mills's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of General Mills shares, or, against the total number of tradable General Mills shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case General Mills's short interest could be expressed as 0.03% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 General Mills shares in existence, roughly 30 shares are currently held short) or 0.0269% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable General Mills shares, roughly 27 shares are currently held short).
A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against General Mills.
Find out more about how you can short General Mills stock.
General Mills's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like General Mills.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
General Mills's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 27.84
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and General Mills's overall score of 27.84 (as at 08/01/2020) is nothing to write home about – landing it in it in the 41st percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like General Mills is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
General Mills's environmental score
Environmental score: 12.04/100
General Mills's environmental score of 12.04 puts it squarely in the 5th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that General Mills is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
General Mills's social score
Social score: 12.75/100
General Mills's social score of 12.75 puts it squarely in the 5th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that General Mills is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
General Mills's governance score
Governance score: 8.05/100
General Mills's governance score puts it squarely in the 5th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that General Mills is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
General Mills's controversy score
Controversy score: 2/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. General Mills scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that General Mills has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
General Mills, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2020-08-01.
| Total ESG score | 27.84 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 40.72 |
| Environmental score | 12.04 |
| Environmental score percentile | 5 |
| Social score | 12.75 |
| Social score percentile | 5 |
| Governance score | 8.05 |
| Governance score percentile | 5 |
| Level of controversy | 2 |
General Mills share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 55.06% of net profits
Recently General Mills has paid out, on average, around 55.06% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.35% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), General Mills shareholders could enjoy a 3.35% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In General Mills's case, that would currently equate to about $1.96 per share.
General Mills's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.
General Mills's most recent dividend payout was on 3 August 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 9 July 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have General Mills's shares ever split?
General Mills's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 9 June 2010. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your General Mills shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for General Mills shares which in turn could have impacted General Mills's share price.
General Mills share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, General Mills's shares have ranged in value from as little as $46.88 up to $65.69. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while General Mills's is 0.5674. This would suggest that General Mills's shares are less volatile than average (for this exchange).
General Mills overview
General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit snacks, nutrition bars, and savory snacks, as well as organic products, including refrigerated yogurt, frozen and shelf-stable vegetables, meal kits, salty snacks, ready-to-eat cereal, and grain snacks. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, BLUE Basics, BLUE Freedom, BLUE Wilderness, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Häagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Lärabar, Latina, Liberté, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. General Mills, Inc. sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. It operates 500 leased and 358 franchise branded ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Frequently asked questions
Ask an Expert