General Mills (GIS) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

General Mills (GIS) closed at $71.80 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.08% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.65%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.02%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.16%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had gained 1.86% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 3.08% and the S&P 500's loss of 10.86% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from General Mills as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.01, up 10.99% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.79 billion, up 5.87% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.83 per share and revenue of $18.89 billion. These totals would mark changes of +1.06% and +4.21%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for General Mills should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. General Mills currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note General Mills's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 18.72. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.28.

Also, we should mention that GIS has a PEG ratio of 2.5. 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 2.54 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 228, which puts it in the bottom 10% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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