Based on the aggregated intelligence of 120,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, food giant General Mills (NYSE: GIS) has earned a respected four-star ranking. While five-star stocks have been the best performers, our data has shown that four-star stocks still outshine the market by a significant margin and shouldn't be taken lightly; conversely, low-rated stocks have woefully lagged the market average.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at General Mills' business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
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General Mills facts
|
Headquarters (founded) |
Minneapolis (1928) |
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Market Cap |
$20.90 billion |
|
Industry |
Processed and Packaged Goods |
|
TTM Revenue |
$14.08 billion |
|
Management |
CEO Kendall Powell (since 2007) CFO Donal Mulligan (since 2007) |
|
Brands |
Cheerios, Wheaties, Betty Crocker, Yoplait |
|
Return on Equity (average last three years) |
23.1% |
|
Dividend Yield |
2.6% |
|
Competitors |
Kellogg (NYSE: K), Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT) |
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CAPS members bullish on GIS also bullish on |
Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Altria (NYSE: MO) |
|
CAPS members bearish on GIS also bearish on |
Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT), General Motors (NYSE: GM) |
Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.
Over on CAPS, fully 606 of the 651 members who have rated General Mills -- some 93% -- believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These Fools include CAPS All-Star sfgfan10 and GGGilmore.
Last month, sfgfan10 put all the major food makers in one bullish boat:
[General Mills], like [Kellog] and [Campbell Soup], should be going up in the future due simply to the fact that their balance sheets look good (and are looking better than they did last year), and the products they sell are always in demand since they fulfill consumers' basic needs.
In a more detailed pitch later on in the month, GGGilmore weighed the stock's pros and cons and came to a bullish conclusion. Here's an excerpt:
General Mills increased prices and reduced package sizes as the price of grains, especially corn, were dramatically increasing in price. Even though the price of corn has dropped from $7 to $4 a bushel, they will be slow to reduce these prices. Other things in their favor - lower transportation costs to transport their finished product, lower energy costs to operate their factories, and a failing economy where people will be eating cereal at home for breakfast instead of going out.
Copyright © 2008 Universal Press Syndicate.
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