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

General Mills (GIS) closed the most recent trading day at $52.89, moving +0.63% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.05%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.11%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.11%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Cheerios cereal, Yoplait yogurt and other packaged foods had lost 0.76% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 0.29%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.32%.

GIS will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.88, up 3.53% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.43 billion, up 0.44% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.36 per share and revenue of $17.31 billion. These totals would mark changes of +4.35% and +2.64%, respectively, from last year.

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. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 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 0.11% lower. GIS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, GIS is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.63. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.8.

It is also worth noting that GIS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.23. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Food - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.48 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 170, which puts 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.

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

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